Suburban Chicagoland

Cardenas supports the new Sandoval-Tabares team for the 12th ward!

2012-01-27T12:08:00.001-08:00

Cardenas supports the new Sandoval-Tabares team for the 12th ward!

Leader of education, housing and environment issues in the Chicago City Council, declared his confidence in the team ready to fight for the SW. Side of Chicago and the nearby suburbs

Photo Caption: Chicago Alderman George Cardenas (12th Ward) (seated) announced his support for the team ready to fight in Springfield for the residents of the SW side of Chicago and the nearby suburbs: Silvana Tabares (left) for the newly created 21st Illinois House District and Senator Martin Sandoval (D) (right) for the 11th Illinois Senate District. Ald. Cardenas is a veteran, a small businessman, a community advocate and a champion of education, housing, environmental and social services issues.

Chicago, Illinois - Chicago Alderman George Cardenas (12th Ward) announced his support for the team ready to fight in Springfield for the residents of the SW side of Chicago and the nearby suburbs: Silvana Tabares (left) for the newly created 21st Illinois House District and Senator Martin Sandoval (D) (right) for the 11th Illinois Senate District.

Ald. Cardenas is a veteran, a small businessman, community advocate and champion of education, housing, environmental and social services issues on the Southwest Side of Chicago

In the Chicago City Council, Alderman Cardenas has successfully achieved many of his priorities improving the educational opportunities for our children, reducing crime, bringing real economic development and job opportunities into the ward as well as providing the highest level of City Services possible.

First elected in 2003, Alderman Cardenas is currently Chairperson of the Committee on Health and Environmental Protection and a member of several committees including Budget and Government Operations, Rules and Ethics, Education and Child Development, Finance, Housing and Real Estate, and License and Consumer Protection.

Alderman Cardenas hails former Water Reclamation Commissioner; three term State Senator and one of the most prominent jobs creator in the state Capitol - Martin Sandoval - on joining him to bring prosperity and employment opportunities to the 12th Ward.

"Being committed to keep on improving the living conditions of my constituents, I am fully convinced that both Silvana Tabares and Senator Sandoval will be extremely valuable in Springfield. I am looking forward to work closely with both community leaders to benefit ALL the residents of the Southwest Side of Chicago" said Ald. Cardenas.

"I am committed to enhancing the vision that Alderman Cardenas has for the 12th Ward," said Silvana Tabares, a veteran community advocate on her own right. "It brings renewed energy to our team and I look forward to hit the ground running. This partnership is bringing fresh ideas and will work towards improving the safety of our communities, the living conditions of our working families, the education of their children and the well-being of our aging neighbors," stated Tabares.

Silvana Tabares will represent the 21st Illinois House District, which includes the neighborhoods of Brighton Park, Little Village, Garfield Ridge of Chicago, and the suburbs of Cicero, Stickney, Bedford Park, Lyons Township, Summit and Riverside.

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ONLY 13 DAYS LEFT TO APPEAL ORLANDTOWNSHIP OPEN FOR TAX APPEAL TO THE BOARD OF REVIEW

2012-01-26T08:47:00.000-08:00

ONLY 13 DAYS LEFT TO APPEAL

ORLANDTOWNSHIP OPEN FOR
TAX APPEAL TO THE BOARD OF REVIEW

There are only 13 days left to file an appeal of your property tax assessment to the Cook County Board of Review. All appeals for Orland Township must be completed and filed by February 8, 2012.

Even if you filed an appeal with the Assessor's office last fall, you still have the opportunity to appeal to the Board of Review.
My office is here to assist you in completing the required paperwork and filing it with the Board of Review. If you or anyone you know may benefit from an appeal, please contact my office at 708-349-1336 for assistance or click the link below to schedule an appointment live in real time: All appeals must be filed by February 8, 2012.

SCHEDULE AN APPOINTMENT FOR ASSISTANCE

Please be sure to bring a copy of your 2010 Second Installment Tax Bill with you.
Please feel free to use the forward function at the bottom of this email to send this to your friends and family that live in Orland Township.

Distributesd by Cook County Commissioner Elizabeth "Liz" Doody Gorman.

On Radio Chicagoland this morning Sunday Jan. 22, 2012

2012-01-22T04:00:00.000-08:00

Authors, Chicago Alderman, the Republican Primary Newt and Mitt and friends, and national politics

You can join in this morning, Sunday, Jan. 21, 2012 on live radio or listen online at www.RadioChicagoland.com by calling 773-792-1240

- 8 AM "Big Book of Science Experiments" published by Time for Kids. Editorial Director Bob Der will discuss the book.
- 8:30 AM Orland Park author Peter Thanos discusses his new book, The Fearless and the Feared. This thriller showcases a 1970’s Chicago mob that is on its way to distributing mass amounts of narcotics, and a detective, with a drug addiction himself, is relied upon to stop the cartel.
- 9 AM Chicago 49th Ward Ald. Joe Moore discusses city politics and the transition from Mayor Richard M. Daley to Mayor Rahm Emanuel, and other issues
- 9:30 AM Ali Younes discusses his interviews with Republican Candidates Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich and their views towards the Arab American community. We also discuss the one year anniversary of the Egyptian Revolution Jan. 25. Also, we follow up on the brutality of the Syrian Regime against civilian protesters. Click here to read the column.
- 10:30 AM Congressman Bill Lipinski discusses National presidential politics and more

- We also look at the legislative battles in the Southwest suburbs with special mention of hypocrite extremist Republican activist with the Tea Party, Fran Eaton, who pretends to be an objective journalist. Click here for the story

Live on Radio every Sunday 8-11 AM CST

THE RAY HANANIA SHOW
call 773-792-1240

SEAN MORRISON NAMED GOP COMMITEEMAN FOR PALOS TOWNSHIP

2012-01-19T14:35:00.001-08:00

SEAN MORRISON NAMED GOP COMMITEEMAN FOR PALOS TOWNSHIP

Cook County, IL, January 19, 2012 – Cook County Republican Chairman Sig Vaznelis has named businessman Sean Morrison Palos Township Republican Committeeman.

For more than a decade, Morrison has actively supported Republican causes, including the Reagan Library. He is an active member of the National Republican Congressional Committee and the Business Advisory Council of the NRCC. In 2005, he was awarded the Ronald Regan Republican Gold medal and, in 2007, was nominated to serve as a Delegate from the State of Illinois at the House Republican Trust Candidates' Convention.

Former National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) Chairman Rep. Tom Reynolds (R-NY) has said of Morrison: “Sean Morrison has long supported Republican ideals like debt reduction and tax reform as they relate to the growth and stability of small business in this country.”

“I believe Cook County Republican party’s platform is more business friendly and we need leaders from the business community to step up, work with us and be heard in Cook County and in Illinois. Removing all outside factors, just looking at vision and business backgrounds made Sean the choice for Palos,” said Chairman Sig Vaznelis.

“I am honored to be named Palos Township Republican Committeeman,” said Morrison. “I’m looking forward to working with all people of good will – my fellow Republican township committeemen, grassroots leaders, businessmen, taxpayers, and concerned citizens – to build a Republican Party we can be proud of.”

Morrison has also performed extensive pro bono work in Cook County and Illinois. In November, Morrison was awarded LEADS 2011 Humanitarian Award for his work with LEADS and the Cook County Human Trafficking Task Force in helping solve missing persons and exploited children’s cases over the years.

A self-made businessman, Sean Morrison, 44, is the Founder and CEO of Morrison Security, Inc. headquartered in Alsip, Illinois. Morrison Security has more than 1,000 employees nationwide. He lives with his wife, Lora, and two children in Palos Park.

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Election Board throws out politically motivated Thompson complaint against Gormans

2012-01-17T11:29:00.000-08:00

Orland Park -- The Illinois State Board of Elections this week dismissed complaints filed against Elizabeth “Liz” Doody Gorman by Mark Thompson alleging that there was improper disclosure in her campaign funds.

Originally Thompson, who Gorman defeated last year for the Republican nomination for the Cook County Board, had filed before the Illinois election board on January 11, 2010 eight (8) specific counts alleging fraud. During the nearly two year long hearing, Thompson was forced to withdraw seven of the complaints as being irrelevant and without merit.

The final count, asserting that the Gorman's received anonymous funding, was dismissed by the Board of Elections.

"This is a good example of how some individuals like Mark Thompson use and exploit the taxpayers' money, time and our public agencies to conduct their failed political campaigns," said Liz Gorman in reaction to the recommendations of the State Commission.

"Mr. Thompson filed his complaints purely for political reasons. He didn't care that the complaints would exhaust taxpayer dollars. He didn't care that the allegations were a lie. All he cared about was the ability to file his outrageous and proven false claims so that he could make a political statement during his failed campaign. In his capacity as an attorney and employee of the State of Illinois, he should be investigated for knowingly filing a frivolous complaint and forced to reimburse the taxpayers."

Gorman filed a counter claim successfully exposing Thompson and his political allies, including disgraced former Cook County Commissioner Tony Peraica, for their illegitimate disclosure practices, and depositing receipts into his campaign manager’s checking account rather than his own campaign committee.

"The voters saw through the charades of both Mr. Thompson and Mr. Peraica who remains a defendant facing charges that he vandalized and destroyed the campaign signs of his opponent Jeff Tobolski and was then arrested and placed in a jail pending the filing of charges," Gorman said.

"These are not the kinds of people who should be representing the public. They are a disgrace. Their total disregard for the interests of the taxpayers is now on full display for everyone to see."

Gorman said she will continue to fight for the best interests of the public and the taxpayers.

(Judge's Order Below)

STATE OF ILLINOIS )

) SS

COUNTY OF COOK )

STATE BOARD OF ELECTIONS

STATE OF ILLINOIS

In the Matter Of: ) )

Mark Thompson, ) )

Complainant(s), )

vs. ) 10 CD 001)

Elizabeth Gorman/The Gorman )

Good Government Group, )

)

Respondent(s). )

ORDER

TO: Mark Thompson Elizabeth Gorman/The Gorman Good Government Group

1168 Margret Street 10834 Carolyn Court

Des Plaines, IL 60016 Orland Park, IL 60467

This matter coming to be heard this 12th day of January, 2012 following a Closed Preliminary Hearing of a Complaint filed pursuant to “An Act to Regulate Campaign Financing” (Illinois Compiled Statutes, 10 ILCS 5/9-1 et seq., herein referred to as the “Act”), alleging that the respondent(s) violated 5/9-11 and 5/9-25 in that the Respondent committee failed to correctly identify the source of certain campaign contributions and expenditures and received contributions made in the name of another; and the State Board of Elections having read the report of the Hearing Officer and hearing the recommendation of the General Counsel and now being fully advised in the premises:

THE BOARD FINDS:

1. No proof has been provided that the source of the loans was anyone other than Gerald Gorman; and

2. The name and address of the contributor of the loan was disclosed as required by Section 5/9-11(8), and

3. The Gorman Good Government Group did not act improperly in amending their campaign financing reports in relation to the source of the loans and their subsequent partial repayment, and

4. The loans were neither anonymous nor made in the name of another which would have been a violation of Section 5/9-25, and

5. There is no proof the reporting of the $390,000.00 in loans violated either Section 5/9-11 or Section 5/9-25.

IT IS HEREBY ORDERED:

1. The Recommendation of the Hearing Officer and the General Counsel is adopted; and

2. No further action is required, and

3. The effective date of this Order is January 17, 2012.

DATED: 1/17/2012

William M. McGuffage, Chairman

END

Fran Eaton's pathetic attempt to help her pal Dan Patlak

2012-01-04T04:31:00.000-08:00

Recently, as many South Suburbanites know from reading my columns, Fran Eaton, a rightwing political activist hack attacked me in her column at a little-known blog called "Illinois Review." Eaton has been campaigning to turn the Republican Party into a pantry for the Tea Party so she and her pals, other rightwing nut jobs, can take over. That's what she has been working on for years.

Click here to read my columns on the "Eaton scandal."

During the scuffle, Eaton and the Illinois Review denied that she was pals with Patlak. Really? That's a joke.

Just a few weeks ago Eaton wrote a scathing column attacking the Cook County Board of Review. (Click here to read that column.) Pretty obvious what she is saying, right. She's attacking the Board of Review and blaming all of the Board's problems and Illinois House Speaker Michael J. Madigan (which is ridiculous, by the way) and on the Democrats.

In fact -- and here is where the Eaton pro-Tea Party spin machine falls in to place -- Eaton wrote:

The powers-that-be who control the county board and county offices as well as the board of review (which hears tax assessment appeals) are all Democrats and so solidly in place that few, if any, challenge them during elections. It’s meaningless for the most part, and those in power know it. Welcome to the “benefits” of one-party rule.

"... Are all Democrats ..." at the Cook County Board of Review. Hmmm. Why would she write that? Well, her pal, her buddy, her chum Dan Patlak is a member of the Cook County Board of Review. But Patlak is a Republican endorsed by the Republican Party and by Fran Eaton.

"all Democrats?"

How does that get by an editor of her columns?

Patlak is as Republican as they come. In fact, the Republican Party is divided over Patlak and Sean Morrison, which is one reason why Eaton hates Cook County's leading Republican champion Elizabeth "Liz" Doody Gorman. Gorman is a leader of the moderate, mainstream Republican Party. She represents everyday, average taxpayers and voters. She's been targeted by Eaton and Eaton's "creepy" friends. ("Creepy" is a word that Eaton and the Illinois Review use often to disparage anyone who disagrees with them, but they are the real creeps!)

Gorman is backing Morrison. Eaton and the Illinois Review are backing Patlak.

Eaton wouldn't disparage Patlak in her column bashing the Democrats because at least one of those "Democrats" -- Dan Patlak -- is a Fran Eaton Republican.

Here's a nice picture of the objective Eaton and Patlak together at the Republican State Fair in August 2011. (From Patlak's web page)

(Click here to see the picture on Patlak's Web Page)

Here is Fran Eaton's writings attacking Sean Morrison to help Patlak, in one of the blogosphere's most rightwing blogs, making the bizarre claim that Morrison, who is a registered Republican, isn't a Republican at all. (To Eaton, anyone who isn't a Tea Party right wing fanatic is not Republican enough.) Click here to read that endorsement of Patlak from the Illinois Review's Eaton.

It was when I criticized another pal of Eaton and the Illinois Review, Jeff Junkas, that Eaton went spazz on me. Junkas did extremely well in the 2010 election against State Rep. Kevin McCarthy even though the Republican Party was split and Junkas did not have all the support. That's why, I wrote, that McCarthy decided to get out of the race to let State Rep Renee Kosel, a moderate mainstream Republican backed by Gorman take the district in the November elections. (Click here to read the column that lit Eaton's chubby fuse.)

Nice hack job Eaton! You're pathetic like the extremists you hang around with.

-- Ray Hanania
www.hanania.com

Illinois Review and Fran Eaton continue racist bashing

2012-01-01T20:07:00.000-08:00

Poor little Illinois Review. They began a fight with me by attacking me and hiding their own racist bigotry that finally did come out in their multiple posts. But I took them on directly and confronted their lies and racism and now they are saying they are not goign to waste any more time on me, trying to connect me with Rod Blagojevich.

What a bunch of immature babies. Fran Eaton is the worst, a hypocrite who throws mud at people who criticize her personal friends and cronies like Jeff Junkass, the Tea Party extremist who was beaten by State Rep. Kevin McCarthy in 2010. When I criticized Junkas, Fran Eaton went berserk and starting attacking me, first saying that she wasn't pimping for Junkas (when she was) and then later attacking me because of my Arab heritage, which she and Illinois Review -- a racist publication with a racist past record -- published their second attack against me.

But when the protests came in hot and heavy against them, and their racism raised an ugly specter about their bigotry, they suddenly decided they want out of the hole they dug.

You are exposed Fran Eaton as a hypocrite, racist bigot. You can erase what you wrote to cover it up, and post updates to push evidence of racism down but everyone saw it.

And then to claim that somehow Rod Blagojevich is any more a friend than a friend of theirs (I never met or interviewed the former Governor even though I felt the sentence against him was too stiff), they can't say the same for the morons they hang around with.

Bring it on Fran Eaton and Illinois Review. I don't mind calling your bluff, exposing your poor writing, bad grammar and inaccurate reporting. Oh, and you won how many journalism awards? That's right. Just what I thought. Horrible people. Terrible publication. Exposed for the frauds that they are.

Click here to read my last response to their continued attacks. But they have been beaten down. Pathetic!!!

-- Ray Hanania
www.hanania.com

Poor Illinois Review and Fran Eaton, can't get their facts right but they love racist hate

2012-01-01T05:40:00.001-08:00

The Illinois Review is a blog. It's not a real reputable journalism source. It is a launching pad for right-wing nut jobs like Fran Eaton.

And the thing that nut jobs really hate is when they are taken to task, as I have recently skewered Fran Eaton and her writings. (She's not very good but that isn't as bad as her inability to get the facts right.)

Eaton launched a vicious attack against me last week when I wrote about the decision by State Rep. Kevin McCarthy to resign from his legislative seat. He did so because the state remapped districts and Republican State Rep. Renee Kosel, a Republican powerhouse from New Lenox/Mokena region decided to run in that 37th district. I noted, accurately, that McCarthy got a pass in two prior elections in 2006 and 2008 but faced a stiff challenge from an unknown (and thin-skinned) rightwing nut job Jeff Junkas. Click here to read the column which has been picked up and circulated throughout the state.

Junkas is a rightwing crackpot with no real substance. Just a lot of yelling, screaming and anger. he is also a GOOD FRIEND with Fran Eaton who is now distancing herself from him hoping that she can pretend to be objective and promote his candidacy to give her pals a leg-up in local politics. (They haven't been doing well at all.)

Eaton, like Junkas, hates moderate and mainstream Republicans like Kosel and Cook County Commissioner Elizabeth "Liz" Doody Gorman. Liz is the leading Republican in Cook County. Because I have written some columns praising Gorman, while criticizing Junkas, Illinois Review unleashed their poodle, Fran Eaton, to lumber through some ridiculous column (taken from the Chicago Sun-Times) about McCarthy's plight attacking me to defend the honor of Mr. Junk-ass. They referred to Southwest Suburban politics as "creepy."

No. The only thing creepy is Fran Eaton.

So I responded to Eaton's inaccuracies (as noted in the link above.)

And Illinois Review responded last night attacking me again. They can't get their facts right, as usual.

Eaton has never been a good writer and she is a journalistic fraud. She's an activist pimping for political pals of Illinois Review. Everyone knows that. But Illinois Review can promote the charade that they are objective all they want. No one believes them.

Here's their most recent personal attack. (Click to read their racist attack.) Note at the end when they can't provide any facts to contradict my points in my columns, they resort to racism and hatred. (Yes, I am Palestinian Arab, though they think I am Muslim. My wife Alison and my son are Jews. And I write for the Jerusalem Post, a real newspaper, unlike Eaton. And I stand up for peace in the Middle East, something the nut jobs in the Arab community dislike too -- ah, Eaton is much like the very people she despises!) When you can't attack the facts you attack the messenger and when you have nothing of substance to say about the messenger, you resort to racism.

So now Fran Eaton and the Illinois Review are racist. Why am I not surprised? The fact that Eaton and Illinois Review have to resort to racism and hate is not surprising since they are defending the segment of the Tea Party that has used racism and hatred as a part of their far right wing ideology. They are living proof of my contention that the Tea Party has some racist bigots among their ranks. (Thanks Fran for the proof.)

They are no different than the Jew-hating sites like Ilhras that constantly attack me.

-- Ray Hanania
www.hanania.com

Fran Eaton takes her shots but she's more of a hypocrite than anyone

2011-12-29T10:38:00.001-08:00

Fran Eaton calls me a "character," but I wonder what she would call herself if her writing wasn't so far up the butts of the Tea Party conservatives and the extreme wing of the Chicagoland Republican party.

Eaton writes a PR puff piece for the Illinois Review, a conservative Republican publication that gives her a platform to promote her extreme rightwing pals. I should say it's not about her hiding behind the Republican Party coats that bothers me; there are a lot of great Republicans out there. But Eaton is a phony. She wants people to think she can analyze politics objectively but she can't. Her writing is stilted and her naalysis is handed to her usually by her political buddies who feed her the inside "scoops" she passes off as news.

This week, I wrote about how State Rep. Kevin McCarthy has decided not to run for re-election, and speculated based on my 35 years of covering Chicagoland politics, that he was stepping down on a high note rather than facing off with Republican Renee Kosel. Kosel is a powerhouse in Republican circles and not one of the nutjobs that Eaton usually pals around with. Eaton has taken shots at me before. I covered Chicago politics for 35 years including 16 years covering Chicago City Hall (from Daley to Daley 1976 through 1992). So although my family is Republican (and so is my wife) I lean towards the Democrats since there is no real Republican presence in Chicago at all.

And Eaton took off on me again, this week attacking me in her usual wet blanket and pacifier in mouth style.

What angered Eaton this time? Well, in analyzing the McCarthy decision not to run, I wrote critically of Jeff Junkas who ran against McCarthy in 2010. Junkas is a rightwing Tea Party activist and is a personal friend of Fran Eaton. During that battle against McCarthy, Eaton played an active role in trying to diss the other Republican in the race, Molly McAvoy Flynn and also Cook County CommissionerElizabeth "Liz" Doody Gorman.

Well, Eaton decided to use her political column in Illinois Review to defend Junkas' honor.

Her biggest points:

1 - I am a media consultant
2 - I also write for several newspapers (several in Chicago and several in the Middle East)
3 - I am "friends" with Liz Gorman
4 - I criticized Junkas' junky campaign

Guilty on all counts. But I am upfront about my relationships, unlike Eaton who hides hers to pass herself off as "objective." She's not objective at all. But she is transparent.

Eaton basically argues that I mix politics and journalism. Wow. Being accused mixing politics and journalism by Fran Eaton is like being called ugly by a pig. If anyone uses her column to pimp for her political pals it is Fran Eaton. (Here's a profile the Chicago Reader wrote about the openness of my journalism-consulting balancing act.)

At least I am up front about my work. Yes, I am president and CEO of Urban Strategies Group. I have seven political and government clients. When I write my columns I openly identify myself as being a media consultant or a political consultant. When I write about someone that is a client, I point it out. When I write about someone who is a political "friend," I point it out.

One of those clients is the high profile Town of Cicero and Town President Larry Dominick, who I not only work for as spokesman but admire. (Eaton, remember, writes also for the Southtown/Star which is owned by the Chicago Sun-Times. I worked at both newspapers years ago and loved the Southtown and loved the old Sun-Times. But today's Sun-Times is nothing near what it used to be two decades ago. And people like Eaton only help bring it down even more.)

It's called "ethics," Fran. Something you clearly lack besides being a horrendous political writer. (Who learned you politics anyway? LOL).

It is true that I am "friends" with Liz Gorman. I admire her and I think she is the best political force in Cook County that the Republican Party has. That came AFTER I spent three years criticizing her and questioning her actions. And that makes me far more objective than the politically partisan Fran Eaton could ever be.

The truth is that Fran Eaton was and basically is Junkas' campaign manager. How did I find that out? When Eaton asked to interview Gorman, Gorman called me and asked me to attend as a writer I did. Eaton mentions this meeting but turns it upside down pretending that she was there to write an "objective" story. Baloney. Eaton was there as an activist for Jeff Junkas. During the entire interview, Eaton kept trying to push Gorman into supporting Junkas. She kept slandering Flynn (who I met several times but Eaton apparently can't locate) in the hopes of undermining Flynn's candidacy against Junkas. Junkas eventually won the Republican primary and went on to get his ass kicked by the weak McCarthy.

Ironically, Eaton questions Gorman's support of Junkas. But the truth is that had Gorman gone south on Junkas and helped McCarthy, the unknown Junkas and Tea Party activist would never have come within 117 votes in Orland Township where Gorman is the Republican Committeeman. In fact, the vote shows that Gorman came out strong for Junkas.

Eaton goes as far as to attack House Speaker Michael J. Madiganwho is one of the most brilliant politicians in Illinois history and in the Midwest. I've known Madigan for 35 years, since the very day I started working at the Southtown in the 1970s. We've had our ups and downs. Like Gorman, I've criticized him and I have praised him, too. Eaton? Well, she hates Democrats, hates moderate Republicans and is a groupie for the Tea Party nutjobs who have, in my opinion, undermined the Republican party's honor.

Fran Eaton is no journalist. She's a political hack doing hack jobs for her pals. And the Illinois Review does't care as long as those hack jobs align with their political bend.

I'll put my credentials up against the smarmy Eaton any time. I have four Peter Lisagor Awards for column writing from the Chicago Headline Club. A sigma Delta Chi Award from the SPJ. Best Ethnic Columnist in America (2007). And two Stick-o-Type awards from the Chicago Newspaper Guild, among many more.

What does Eaton have? Well, she has her political chums who spoon feed her most of her worthless drivel. if the word "creepy" applies to anyone, it applies to the hypocrite Fran Eaton and her unethical writing and her efforts to disguise her political activism. Eaton loves to dish it out but she has a skin so thin her screaming rants are notorious. Eaton is pals with right-wing Republican Dan Patlak who is running for another term on the Board of Tax Review. He's only taken $300,000 in donations from the lawyers who appear before the board. You won't see Eaton writing about that, but she will be attacking Patlak's challenger Sean Morrison who Gorman supports.

Click HERE to read Eaton's political consulting analysis for the Illinois Review.

Click HERE to read my analysis of McCarthy's decision to step down.

The truth is Junkas is a horrible public candidate, Gorman is the best thing that has ever happened to Southwest suburban Republican politics, and Eaton is a flaming hypocrite.

By the way Fran, I host a Sunday morning radio show on WSBC AM 1240 from 8 until 11 am (www.RadioChicagoland.com). And I'm happy to expose your hypocrisy there this Sunday, too!

-- Ray Hanania
www.hanania.com

COOK COUNTY ELECTORAL BOARD RULES UNANIMOUSLY IN FAVOR OF SEAN MORRISON

2011-12-28T13:46:00.001-08:00

COOK COUNTY ELECTORAL BOARD RULES UNANIMOUSLY IN FAVOR OF SEAN MORRISON

Cook County, IL, December 28, 2011 – This morning, the Cook County Electoral Board ruled unanimously in favor of Sean Morrison, Republican candidate for Cook County Board of Review, First District. The electoral board granted the Motion to Strike Dan Patlak’s objection petition against Morrison.

Patlak had contended publicly that Morrison had not filed his Statement of Economic Interest or the receipt for the document. However, according to the plain language of the statute, “The receipt is not required if the Statement of Economic Interests is filed with the same officer with which the nominating papers are filed.” [10 ILCS 5/7-12 (8)] A copy of Morrison’s Statement of Economic Interest that had been certified by Cook County Clerk David Orr’s office was presented to the electoral board this morning.

“We are very pleased with our victory today before the Cook County Electoral Board,” said Morrison. “However, I find it very disconcerting that my opponent is not familiar with basic Cook County election law and would mount such a frivolous challenge to my candidacy wasting valuable county resources and taxpayer money. That does not speak well for his candidacy or his knowledge of the law.”

Morrison filed more than 7,000 signatures to run for the Cook County Board of Review – thousands more signatures than were required. Patlak also mounted an unsuccessful challenge to Sean Morrison’s candidacy in 2010. Patlak is the incumbent commissioner at the Cook County Board of Review.

Morrison says that “politics as usual” permeates the Cook County Board of Review and that his opponent personifies the problem. He recently challenged Patlak on his serious conflict of interest of aggressively soliciting contributions from the very property tax attorneys who appear before him. With more than 90% of Patlak’s fundraising (more than $330,000.00) coming from these attorneys, Morrison has condemned this “shakedown” and called on his opponent to limit attorney contributions to $250.

Self-made businessman, Sean Morrison, 44, is the President and of Morrison Security, Inc. headquartered in Alsip, Illinois. Morrison Security has more than 1,000 employees nationwide. Morrison’s extensive pro bono work includes work with LEADS Organization and the Cook County Human Trafficking Task Force. Morrison was recently awarded the LEADS 2011 Humanitarian Award for his work in helping solve exploited and missing children cases over the years. He lives with his wife, Lora, and two children in Palos Park.

For more information, visit www.seanmorrisongop.com.

Coyotes in a Winter lull

2011-12-26T03:51:00.001-08:00

You might not see them. You might not catch a glimpse. But they are out there. In the twilight of the passing night. Prancing on tip-toes through the shine of the street light, darting from shadow to next. You can stare down the street or through a neighbor's yard. Under the yellow light above a porch or in the faded reflection of a full moon above in the night sky.

They pace themselves cautiously. Not afraid but vigilant. Looking. Smelling. Listening for signs of humans or prey. Small animals that are lost or left wandering the night outside the safety of the home.

You can see their elegance, if they let you a glimpse. They don't pose for portraits or stop to trade glances or attitudes. They're on the prowl for prey or safety. Their destiny in the wild. A wild that was once a forrest or a prairie of tall grass and oaks now a canvas of manicured front lawns, shrubs, Malibu lights and concrete sidewalks and driveways with cold steeled cars.

They walk carefully on their tiptoes. But they don't hesitate. Werewolves of the night. Grey coats of thick fur. Silverish hue in the distance. Their long snouts distinct and piercing black eyes.

They emerge in the middle of the night as the stars are bright. Where do they hide? Where do they spend their daytime? The forest? Large clusters of Italian carved evergreens? An old, abandoned garage? Under a rotting porch or gazebo? Waiting for the sun to go down and the streets to clear of cars and headlights and the loud echoes of racing engines. For the people to retire to their heated homes, heat exhaust billowing like white smoke from the roof stokes? The eeriness of the smoke as it sales like a soft haze in the night sky, slowly until it evaporates into the chilled air.

Dead silence outside. Maybe a train in the distance, making them four legged hobos and transients past your window.

They are not easy to spot. But when you do, they is an elegance to the madness of animal charm. Dangerous yet appealing. You don't want to get too close. Cross paths with the wild. Just watching as they move in their stealth from out of one dark shadow to the next.

-- Ray Hanania

www.hanania.com
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The absolute best restaurant to eat a fine dinner for a great holiday

2011-12-25T15:43:00.000-08:00

Normally, I love to cook for the holidays. But this Christmas, we decided to take it easy and instead of slaving over the oven, we wanted to go out an enjoy a great meal. There are a lot of restaurants where you can enjoy a great meal, but there is only one in the Southwest suburbs where you can really enjoy a fabulous meal worthy of Christmas or even New Years. That's 94 West Steak and Seafood, 15410 94th Avenue in Orland Park.

94 West is the absolute finest restaurant where you can get one of the best meals not only for quality but even for price. We ordered the Prime Rib. Now, my son ordered the 18 ounce Mary Prime Rib and I ordered the 18 ounce Johnny's Cut. I thought, for some reason, that the cuts would be pretty normal. But the Prime Rib I got was huge. I mean huge! It melted in my mouth it was so good.

Alison got the Sea Bass which was phenomenal. And We had the buffalo shrimp and the buffalo calamari as starters. Wow!

I figured this was one of the best Christmases we have had in a long time. The weather was beautiful -- one of the first Christmases I can remember where we didn't have any snow. Not a snow flake. It felt like a slightly chilled California with a clear blue night sky and bright stars.

What a perfect Christmas. Thanks to owners Brian and Maria Sjord. What wonderful hosts and phenomenal food. Try it.

DOn't forget that they have a Special New Year's Eve dining evening planned from 11 pm until 3 am only $25 a person including a while roasted Filet Mignon carving station. Lobster Newberg saute station, Scottish Salmon, Tilapia, snow crab and more. Reservations for open menu available from 3 pm to 5 pm.

Visit www.94westrestaurant.com for more details.

-- Ray Hanania
www.Hanania.com

Christmas joy comes to needy family and kids in the Town of Cicero

2011-12-19T03:30:00.000-08:00

I live in a middle class suburban community where taxes are rising but the property isn't as expensive as many others. It's a nice place with beautiful homes, some more beautiful than others. Still, I consider myself fortunate. Despite all the great stories about the beauty of Orland Park, there are stories all around us and everywhere that make you cry. We have our needy families. Increasingly, families are finding it harder and harder to put food on their table, to pay bills or to provide the basics to their children. It's that way in a lot of communities. And government budgets are tight and there's little that many communities can do.

I head up my own company, Urban Strategies Group, which provides media consulting services to about a dozen or so clients. What else does a former newspaper man do in an era where newspapers are collapsing or are being bought up by greed-driven corporations and investment robber barons? You share your writing skills and your communications knowledge.

One of my clients, my most significant one, is the Town of Cicero. Cicero is a beautiful place. I met my wife there. I love the Town. It's lived under a dark cloud for many years before. A few years ago, its former mayor, Betty Loren-Maltese, was sent packing to jail for stealing $12 million from the Town to enrich herself. New homes. New Cars. It was disgusting, according to the judge. Released after nearly 8 years and the majority of her property confiscated by the feds, she spends most of her days in anger bashing people on her Facebook page. Oftentimes, she bashes me. In a way, I feel sorry for her. She's a pathetic remnant of someone who had so much opportunity to do good but instead used her greed to rain money and privilege on herself until they threw her in the hoosegow.

But why waste more time talking about her?

Today, the Town of Cicero has a mayor, Larry Dominick, who is often criticized by the Chicago Sun-Times -- every mayor in Cicero has been criticized from the beginning of time. He's tough and brushes off the attacks, knowing that the Sun-Times avoids similar controversies in communities that the newspaper loves. (It's easy for the newspaper to pick on a community where you have no base and nothing to lose. Here's one of their misleading controversies.) But Dominick has a heart made of gold when it comes to families and little kids. And it makes me proud to see all that he and the Town's board do for the residents of the Town of Cicero.

I could list all the great things he's brought to the Town that in their zeal to criticize Larry Dominick, the Sun-Times never covers. He built a beautiful government Town Hall. Some people wonder why do the people of Cicero deserve a modernday, beautiful Town Hall? Why? Why shouldn't the people of Cicero have government buildings and services like many other communities? A lot of the criticism is based on racism -- the town is majority Hispanic -- or it is all about politics from hacks thrown out of office who want back in. Why should the people of the Town of Cicero have a great Town Hall they can be proud of? Orland Park has a beautiful one that cost just as much to build. Are the people of Orland Park or Winnetka or Hinsdale or Evanston any better than the people of the Town of Cicero?

I'm not trashing the other communities, or Orland Park. I love Orland Park, too. It has great schools, a popular shopping mall and one of the best Police Departments in the region. But Cicero has all that, too. And a lot more that most people don't even get a chance to read about in today's ailing media.

Dominick brought a lot more. They have a huge community park where every Summer the weekdays and weekends are filled with festivals, concerts, movies, carnivals and fun. He built a huge community center where they hold classes for new citizens, have a huge gymnasium where programs for seniors, families, teenagers and children are held. They celebrated the Houby Day festival there, but they also celebrated holidays for everyone, including a memorial in the memory of the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

How many non-African American communities hold ceremonies honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr? Maybe a few, but not a lot.

Under Dominick, Cicero launched a program to hire disabled residents to give them jobs. There are 18 employees with disabilities in the Town who I meet and greet every morning when I go there. Their faces are
filled with smiles. They love to work.

They're building new industry in Cicero, something that isn't happening much in other communities choked with empty storefront businesses and still factories and large industries. Wirtz Beverage Illinois decided that Cicero was worth it, and the are relocating their statewide operations from several facilities to a new central hub in Cicero. More than 1,000 employees, most coming from other communities, will be working there everyday, and seeing firsthand what Cicero has to offer.

A few weeks back, Dominick received a grant to build a professional ice hockey stadium and they named it in honor of a local boy who grew up in Berwyn and on the streets of Cicero, Blackhawk's great Bobby Hull. The new Bobby Hull Community Ice Rink has kids and families on its ice every day. They don't have to break fire hydrants to fill their backyards to build an ice rink like they did recently in another community that I read about in the news.

Senior citizens get councils and meetings in many communities, but in Cicero they get real life. They get support and help to clean their yards and all kinds of programs that keep them busy enjoying their sunset years having spent their lives working. The schools are phenomenal. A few months back, the Town named a section of Austin and 25th Street in honor of Joe Mantegna, outside of the school where several inspirational teachers helped him build the foundation that led to his Hollywood success. He was proud to come back to Cicero and tell the people how much he loved them.

I could go on and on about the great things Dominick is bringing to the Town of Cicero. There's a lot. You can click here to read about all of their stories (in English and in Spanish, too). But what impresses me the most is Dominick's dedication to little kids and families in need.

Two weeks ago, Dominick hosted a Christmas party for 2,500 needy families and their children. The community center was packed. I mean jammed packed with people who brought their kids to get a little cheer. They gave them gloves and hats and toys and a great meal.

This past weekend, nearly 800 families in desperate need, brought their children to meet Santa Claus. The Town gave each family a Ham and each child received a beautiful toy. About 30 of the town's employees volunteered to act as Christmas Elves to greet the children, get their age and go back into Santa's den and bring them out a toy for Christmas.

Yea, there are all the stupid Sun-Times "controversies," stories usually exaggerated way out of proportion -- you wonder what the point of the stories is, except maybe it's more about the newspaper itself collapsing. But I saw the smiles on the faces of all those kids and watched in awe as each one of them clutched toys large and small walking out with their mothers or their fathers excited about the Holiday Season.

That's what Christmas is about. And that's what good government is all about too. A government that cares more about what its constituents want, rather than caring about the politically motivated stories of a dying newspaper that is coughing out its last breaths of yellow journalism.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone.

-- Ray Hanania
www.RadioChicagoland.com

Beautiful lunar eclipse from Orland Park

2011-12-11T16:39:00.000-08:00

The Lunar Eclipse on Saturday morning was beautiful. It wasn't easy to see the whole event from Orland Park, but we managed to see the "Penumbra" of the Earth's shadow cover the Moon and give it a reddish hue. Just before the moon set in the northwestern sky, the "Umbra" of the Earth's shadow (the darkest core of the shadow) began to cover the top left crest of the Moon. As that shadow grew on the Moon, the Moon made it's way down and north, out of site.

We were able to follow the lunar eclipse using our iPads. As the sun cast the Earth's shadow completely over the Moon, the sunlight light up the sky and the moon turned red again.

The first time I ever saw a solar eclipse was in the 1960s when I was young. We were at O'Hare airport waiting for a relative to arrive at the gate in the airport. Back then, anyone could walk right up to the gate and wait to greet people. (Today, only those who travel can wait at the gate and everyone else not traveling has to wait in the outer lobby past security.) There was no security back then. I was young, maybe nine years old at the time.

My father took a piece of paper and punched a tiny hole in it with his pen that he kept in his jacket pocket. He told me not to look at the Sun and then took the paper with the hole, held it flat towards the Sun and then with the other hand held another sheet of paper so a small dot began to appear on the second sheet of paper. As he carefully moved the two sheets apart, the dot turned into a brilliant replica of the Sun and you could see the Sun being covered by a little black circle. Eventually, it was completely covered by the Moon and the dot turned into a black spot with a bright circle around it.

The Lunar eclipse was easier to stare out and exciting. But technology made it a more fascinating experience. Friends in California and in Hawaii who had more time to watch the Earth's shadow cover the moon messaged me on Facebook to share their photos.

It all reminds us that there are some things that mean more than money, and that there are some things that can still manage to bring a family together to enjoy something so spectacular.

-- Ray Hanania
www.Hanania.com

While visions of Jewel-Osco numbers danced annoyingly in my head

2011-12-01T06:22:00.000-08:00

I love to shop at grocery stores. It's a lot like shopping at the hardware stores. Jewel is my favorite, although I continue to fight against the computer self-check out sections. (Those computers always give me a hassle.)

But I have been collecting those little green playing cards that Jewel gives you when you buy food. It's part of their "Wish Big, Win Big, Holiday Giveaway." But deep down I doubt I am going to win much of anything except maybe $5 -- if I am lucky -- or a few "instant winner" tickets so I can get two more tickets, suckering me in even more.

Here is how it works. You get a game board with pictures of products on it. Sections of the pictures have numbers and you get little green square playing cards that you have to open (not easy) and then find four numbered playing pieces, numbers 1 to 85. (Each number represents an image slice of a specific product.

You open the playing card and then carefully tear away the coupon and then tear away each of the four playing tabs. Each tab gets glued onto its numbered space on the playing board, which is a flimsy sheet of glossy green paper.

Now being a baby boomer, I have certain habits that I am sure some consultant explained to Jewel. I love to spend money on food. I love to play grocery store games. I'm addicted to grocery store games, actually. I don't love to play them at all. It all began int he 1960s (maybe 1950s) when my mother used to collect S&H Green Stamps and I would help her lick the backs and put them in the stamp book. As each book filled up, you could turn in books for certain prizes, like a Waring Blender. Of course, I was only 5, so it was fun. Plus, the glue tasted good. That got me hooked on White Paste glue which I ate along with my lunch at school each day.

But, I have some issues, of course. What respectable curmudgeon wouldn't have a few issues with a game of stamp giveaway at a grocery store? First, there is no real system to the ticket giveaways when you shop. When you make a purchase, the cashiers give you the playing cards with the little tabs that you have to cut away to place on the game board. There is no rhyme or reason to how they are given out. One day I spent $111 and got one ticket. One day I spent $20 and got six. When I shop at a Jewel in a "poorer" community, it seems like I get more playing cards. When I shop in richman's Orland Park, it seems like I get fewer gaming cards.

At first, it's fun to rip them open and locate them on the board. The board is empty. Nearly every one will find its place. But after a while, it becomes harder to find a piece to paste onto the game board.

You need six tickets numbered 1-6 to win the $250,000. I'm missing 1, 4 and 5. I need two tickets to win one of the 8 cars they are giving away (numbers 22 through 25, I have all but 22 and 25.) I need only one ticket to win the one of 75 big screen TVs (42--45, I need 44). And one ticket to win the $500 Jewel-Osco Gift Card (50-53, I need 50).

So I collect the little bastards when I shop. I want to say know, but you never know. What if you get that number 50 and don't check? You have to check. Arrrgh! That's what is so annoying. I have to check. So, for the past week, I have been collecting them, placing them on the dinner table. Starrign at the growing pile. I figure, if I collect enough, I will find one of them.

I have three of four tickets (46-49, I'm missing 46 (Reddiwip)) to win an Apple iPad2. (Nooooooo! Not an iPad2? And I need only 1 ticket to win a digital camera (62 through 65, I'm missing 62.) There are 500 of those cameras.

I can already see where I am headed. The statistics don't lie if you read them right. There are 60,000 $2 prizes and 8,000 $5 prizes. 500 digital cameras and 100 Apple iPad2s. There are four $50,000 prizes and eight cars valued at $25,000 and again, only two $250,000 prizes.

I keep all of the old tabs, just in case. What if I glue the wrong number on the wrong spot by accident. It could happen? These concerns haunt me throughout the day while I am working.

Oops. I have to run to the Jewel to get some lunch from the deli section. Caesar's Chicken salad. Gotta go. And get one of those last few tickets before the contest ends Feb. 8 -- last day to get a ticket is Feb. 1. So, I have time. Bye.

- Ray Hanania
www.hanania.com

Illinois legislature says no to Sears bailout: Don’t give Sears bosses a taxpayer funded bailout

2011-11-30T13:34:00.000-08:00

Illinois legislature says no to Sears bailout: Don’t give Sears bosses a taxpayer funded bailout

By Ray Hanania

Sears says it wants to leave Illinois if the state doesn’t give it a tax break. The economy has been rough on the once great hardware giant that has diversity its retail products so much it’s hard to say what it specializes in these days.

But who isn’t hurting in Illinois or in any state for that matter?

The economy is falling and it is killing everyone.

This week, the legislature considered giving Sears a bailout, because Sears has vowed to relocate its headquarters outside of Illinois. A plan to bailout Sears failed by a 99-8 vote in the house and 36 to 18 in the Senate. Finally, the legislature does the right thing.

Sears has a headquarters in Hoffman Estates and a dozen or more stores in Illinois. There’s one store in Orland Park, one in Chicago Ridge, one in the Lincoln Mall, one in the North Riverside mall, one in the River Oaks mall, one in Joliet and one in the Oak Brook Mall. There are three stores in Chicago.

But Sears isn’t threatening to relocate its 10 Chicagoland stores or others throughout the state. It wants to relocate its corporate headquarters to help cut down on its taxes.

It’s a typical selfish blackmail move. If you don’t help us, we will bail on you, is what Sears honchos are threatening.

And what is it that they want?

Sears wants the state to cut its taxes. Sears bigwigs want the taxpayers to give them $15 million a year for the next 10 years in tax breaks.

It’s funny. Sears revenues are down because Sears has done a lousy job of managing its retail business. The economy sucks but when was the last time anyone went to Sears to buy something?

I walk through Sears from the parking ot in the Orland Mall sometimes to get to the mall itself. They’re just a pathway to me. I haven’t purchased anything from Sears in years. I used to really like their products but in recent yearsm they have failed to compete.

I wouldn’t go by their to buy a flat screen TV, tools or even tires for my car. Years ago, I did buy a vacuum cleaner there but that was the last major purchase I made.

Is it our fault as taxpayers and consumers that Sears is having troubles? We’re all having troubles. What makes them so special? What makes them special is that they decided to hold the public hostage and blackmail the state. And Gov, Patrick Quinn, Mr. Nice Guy with no loyalty to the public, wants to keep them in Illinois. Not because keeping them does anything for the state but it will prevent him from looking like a bad governor. The Chicago Merchantile Exchange wants to leave Illinois, too. And they want a taxpayer bailout, too.

Well, this is one taxpayer tired of giving big businesses bailouts. When we do give these corporate giants tax money, they use it to pay their big fat-cat bonuses.

Who works at the Hoffman Estates Sears headquarters? The blue collar schmoes? Or the wealthy corporate big shots who profit off of their failed leadership.

When a business goes down, and sales slump, the people who should be punished should be the owners and the big shots, not the employees and certainly not the consumers.

Fire some of those big salaried robber barons who have run Sears to the ground. If they want to leave Illinois, fine. We’ll leave Sears.

If Sears cared about Illinois, they would tighten their belts, trim back salaries at the top tier and do a better job of managing the inventory.

But these days, big businesses find it far easier to ask for government help and taxpayer money rather than to be better business managers.

end

Gorman offers Coast2Coast RX prescription services from county office

2011-11-29T12:04:00.001-08:00

November 29, 2011

Dear Editor:

As the economy remains stagnant and expenses continue to rise for American families, especially healthcare expenses, everyone is looking for ways to cut costs to make ends meet. To help my constituents save money and ease some of the financial burdens on their already strained pocketbooks, I have been providing a Coast2Coast RX Prescription Discount Card which has been saving constituents money since June of this year.

The card is being distributed free of charge from my district office and from my web site as a download. The card is good at over 59,000 pharmacies nationwide and accepted at Walgreens, CVS, Osco, Target, Costco and many neighborhood pharmacies in your area. It may also be used for discounts on lab tests and imaging, Outlook Vision program and Dentemax dental program.

Several of our constituents have contacted us to let us know of the great savings they received by using this card. To date, the average savings to our constituents has been a whopping 66% off the regular costs of their prescription medications. For instance, one constituent who paid $59 per month for one prescription is now paying $19 and another was paying $281 per month for one prescription and by using the card his new cost is $121 per month. That same constituent found that if they switched to the generic brand of their medication, they would pay only $13 per month.

Everyone is eligible to use it. What’s even better is that one card may be used by your entire family. If you think you can benefit from this card, please contact my office at 708-349-1336 or log on to my web site at www.lizgorman.com and download your own copy of the card.

Sincerely,

Liz Gorman

Cook County Commissioner

Great idea: Orland Township to Launch New Prescription Drug Savings Program

2011-11-28T12:53:00.001-08:00

Orland Township to Launch New Prescription Drug Savings Program

November 23, 2011 – Orland, IL – On December 2, 2011 at 10:00 a.m. Orland Township Supervisor Paul O’ Grady and IPPFA Benefits will hold a press conference to launch a new prescription drug discount program at 14807 S. Ravinia Avenue Orland Park, IL.

Once launched, the new Coast2Coast Rx card will allow all Township residents, regardless of income, age, or health status to participate in the program and save on the cost of their medications. This program saved cardholders throughout the nation an average over 50% in 2011 on the cost of prescription drugs. Even pets and other people living outside the Township are able to take part in the program. The Rx card will be distributed free of charge and may be used at all pharmacy chains and most independent pharmacies in Orland Township and includes over 60,000 drugs in its formulary.

“In offering the prescription drug discount card, I’d like to alleviate a bit of the stress that many residents are facing right now in this financially unstable time. Paying a little less at the drugstore can’t hurt, especially when the cost of healthcare is steadily rising,” said Orland Township Supervisor, Paul O’ Grady. There are no eligibility requirements so the Rx card is expected to have a sizeable impact on uninsured residents or residents facing high insurance deductibles. If a particular drug isn’t covered under a person’s health plan – they can use the card to save on those prescriptions.

Providing savings for residents through the Rx program will come at no expense to the Township. Besides the discount on prescriptions, the card also provides 50% to 80% discounts for lab and imaging tests, and discounts on Dental, Vision and Hearing services, further helping residents save even more money on their healthcare costs for these services.

Debby Karton, Benefits Coordinator at IPPFA, the distributor of the Coast2Coast Rx free discount card, says “we are pleased to work with the Township to help individuals, their families and pets combat the rising cost of healthcare.” Karton added, “we appreciate all that the Township and local pharmacies are doing to help those in need.”

The Coast2Coast Rx card will be available for residents at most participating pharmacies, governmental offices, libraries, and the Orland Township offices. Residents will also be able to print the Rx card, check their prescription prices and view the nearest participating locations at www.coast2coastrx.com/Orland.

The Coast2Coast Rx card will provide residents with a valuable tool to help maintain their health and wellbeing at a discounted cost. Orland Township joins over 30 townships in Cook, Lake and DuPage Counties making the program available to residents.

###

Lots of annoyances in Orland Park, but here is one thing I enjoy

2011-11-19T15:04:00.001-08:00

There are a lot of annoyances in Orland Park. Some crappy neighbors, but lots of great ones to make up. ComEd digging in your yard without ever giving you a notice they're doing any work. Crowded LaGrange Road. But the one thing I enjoy, our population of Canadian Geese. Here's a video of a gaggle of geese crossing a road in Orland Park. Fortunately, all of the vehicles stopped and didn't run them over as some moronic drivers often do. Enjoy it.

MICHAEL E. HASTINGS ANNOUNCES CANDIDACY FOR STATE SENATE

2011-11-16T10:49:00.001-08:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: media@hastings2012.com

MICHAEL E. HASTINGS ANNOUNCES CANDIDACY FOR STATE SENATE

By Christina Hansen

November 15, 2011

ORLAND HILLS, Ill. – In announcing his candidacy for the Illinois State Senate, Michael E. Hastings wrote in a letter to the residents of the 19^th Senate District, “Over the past decade, a dark cloud has descended over the great State of Illinois. We have been subjected to the worst leadership in both political parties that the State has ever seen.”

Hastings, a West Point graduate, Operation Iraqi Freedom veteran and member of the Consolidated High School District #230 School Board, promises to bring positive, effective change to Illinois government through “values-based leadership.”

“The State of Illinois has politically entrenched leaders who do not act for what is in the best interest of the citizens they represent," Hastings wrote. "They are only interested in what will benefit their campaign war chests. To be blunt, not all of our leaders – but a majority of them – have failed the people.”

“Our Illinois legislators have mortgaged the future generations through poor financial management. It has to change, and it will change.”

Hastings is running on the platform of revitalizing the crippled job market in Illinois and restoring financial responsibility to Springfield. He can be reached at mike@hastings2012.com or visited at http://www.hastings2012.com.

How ComEd screwed in the legislative lightbulb and screwed its customers with a rate increase

2011-11-02T05:04:00.001-07:00

Vote shows how much control ComEd has over our pocketbooks

By Ray Hanania

Commonwealth Edison is all about wealth and less about Thomas Edison’s driving desire to serve mankind with electrical power.

The ComEd combine steamrolled through Springfield’s legislature this past session doling out donations and roping in legislators to back its push for a rate increase.

In the neighborhoods, many homeowners were dragged in the fight when their electricity – in many cases for absolutely no reason – went out for hours. It was kind of like the mafia coming by and busting your store window to remind owners to pay-up of face the consequences.

The consequences for the public are steep. Their rates will again go up. And for what? Continued erratic and lousy service.

ComEd continues to play the pauper while it is the abandoned son of Exelon the multi-billioned profit center parent. Exelon threw ComEd out of the “house” so it could separate ComEd’s financial needs from Exelon’s profits. How can you pretend to be in need of money when you are one of the wealthiest companies in America? So Exelon cut ComEd from its corporate structure creating all kinds of phony distances so ComEd could profess to be the pauper.

Meanwhile, ComEd’s lobbyists and media minions worked the legislature like the Mafia on Chicago’s South Side, even to the point of having colleagues vote on behalf of the skittish few.

ComEd’s spin machine claimed that the new increases would help them to improve the delivery of electricity through a new “smart grid” system. They only need $3.5 billion. (They probably spent that much for the army of lobbyists who swarmed through Springfield to push for the consumer rate increase.)

Amazingly, the ComEd army sold the hapless legislators on the anemic argument that a rate hike will actually save consumers money.

Gov. Pat Quinn was right when he pointed out that something stinks in the passage of the ComEd “Smart Grind” legislation – the name was a lobbyist’s wet-dream. Supposedly it will help improve the service so neighborhoods won’t experience so many electricity service shutdowns. After pummeling residents in neighborhoods in legislative districts where legislators were on the fence with electricity shut downs, those legislators managed to somehow cast a shaky vote or walked away from the vote so that their colleagues could cast their votes for them.

Gov. Quinn rightly calls it a theft of representation, but suddenly Quinn is the bad guy in this. Suddenly the media which touted Quinn as the best alternative to the scandal-plagued former governor Rod Blagojevich – who never met a friend he could turn in to an enemy – and now somehow Quinn is worse.

How fast the media whores can spin their ethics?

The "smart grid" measure passed 36-19 in the Illinois Senate. There was no debate before the House voted which rallied for a rate hike and ComEd’s lobbyists by a whopping 74-42 vote, making the vote veto-proof.

It’s a snub against Quinn but the real victims are consumers. The utility company managed to once again find a way to increase rates without a whimper from our centurions in the legislature. Centurians? More like puppets.

The bill was sponsored by:

In the Senate, Mike Jacobs, John O. Jones and John J. Millner. In the House, by Kevin McCarthy, Mike Bost, Dave Winters, Kenneth Dunkin and Dan Reitz.

McCarthy’s legislative office is in the ComEd hit zone that was targeted for electrical shut-offs. There were five just in the past month in that area, each time for several hours during the day. No explanation. No one cares except the homeowners stuck in their homes wondering what the hell happened.

Here’s how your legislator voted to give ComEd, which provides terrible service, a means of increasing rates and Exelon’s profits. House Vote followed by Senate vote -- (By vote and by last name except where last names are similar to other members):

Click to display the House Vote in PDF Format or check list below: Click here.
Click to display Senate Vote in PDF Format or check lists below: Click here.

HOUSE VOTE, Oct 26, 2011

74 YEAS 42 NAYS 0 PRESENT

Y Acevedo

Y DeLuca

Y Kosel

Y Reboletti

Y Arroyo

Y du Buclet

Y Lang

Y Reis

Y Leitch

Y Beiser

Y Dunkin

Y Rita

Y Bellock

Y Durkin

Y Lyons

Y Rose

Y Berrios

Y Eddy

Y Mautino

Y Roth

Y Bost

Y May

Y Sacia

Y Bradley

Y Mayfield

Y Saviano

Y Flowers

Y Schmitz

Y Brauer

Y McAuliffe

Y Senger

Y Fortner

Y McCarthy

Y Burke, Daniel

Y Franks

Y McGuire

Y Smith

Y Gabel

Y Carli

Y Mitchell, Bill

Y Sosnowski

Y Mitchell, Jerry

Y Soto

Y Sullivan

Y Chapa LaVia

Y Morrison

Y Thapedi

Y Morthland

Y Tracy

Y Tryon

Y Colvin

Y Turner

Y Connelly

Y Hernandez

Y Nybo

Y Verschoore

Y Howard

Y Osmond

Y Watson

Y Cross

Y Phelps

Y Jakobsson

Y Pihos

Y Winters

Y Currie

Y Jefferson

Y Poe

Y Yarbrough

Y Jones

Y Pritchard

Y Davis, Monique N Kay

Y Ramey

Y Mr. Speaker Madigan

Y Davis, William

N Barickman

N Dugan

N Riley

N Lilly

N Mathias

N Rosenthal

N Biss

N Evans

N Farnham

N Feigenholtz

N Brady

N McAsey

N Ford

N Brown

N Sente

N Burke,Kelly

N Mell

N Sommer

N Gaffney

N Cassidy

N Golar

N Cavaletto

N Gordon

N Moffitt

N Hammond

N Harris,David

N Cole

N Harris,Greg

N Mulligan

N Hatcher

N Mussman

N Hays

N Nekritz

N Unes

N Costello

N Crespo

N Jackson

N Williams

N Cunningham

N D'Amico

N Zalewski

E Coladipietro

(y – Yes, N – No, E - Excused Absence)

Senate Bill No. 1652 OVERRIDE VETO

MOTION IN WRITING THIRD READING

Oct 26, 2011

36 YEAS 19 NAYS 2 PRESENT

Y Althoff

Y Haine

Y Lightford

Y Raoul

Y Harmon

Y Link

Y Rezin

Y Holmes

Y Luechtefeld

Y Righter

Y Brady

Y Hunter

Y Sandack

Y Hutchinson

Y Martinez

Y Sandoval

Y Collins, A.

Y Jacobs

Y Crotty

Y Johnson, T.

Y Meeks

Y Jones, E.

Y Millner

Y Delgado

Y Jones, J.

Y Dillard

Y Koehler

Y Muñoz

Y Murphy

Y Trotter

Y Noland

Y Wilhelmi

Y Landek

Y Pankau

Y Mr. President Cullerton

Y Radogno

N Bivins

N Maloney

N Clayborne

N McCann

N Schmidt

N Johnson, C.

N Schoenberg

N Silverstein

N Cultra

N Steans

N Sullivan

N Syverson

N Duffy

N Kotowski

N Forby

N LaHood

N Frerichs

N Garrett

N Lauzen

NV McCarter

NV Bomke

P Collins, J.

P Mulroe

(Y – Yes, N = No, P – Present, NV – No Vote cast)

END

Long past days of Halloween old

2011-10-31T18:56:00.000-07:00

I don't recall my father ever walking with me or driving me around for Halloween when I was young. And, unless my memory is really slipping, Halloween didn't seem as cold back then as it has been in recent years.

We had only one rule when I was a kid. Be home when the street lights went on, or, thereabouts. Sometimes, we'd be out until 9 or 10 pm knocking on doors. Back then, there was a greater sense of safety. Maybe it was false, but the worst we feared was someone putting a razor blade in the apples. It was more of an urban legend, but nonetheless, we always sliced the apples before we started to eat them.

Although we had store-bought costumes, many of the costumes were home made. It looks like that hasn't changed much in the past half century, but the store-bought costumes seem more elaborate. Or maybe not.

I drive my son around in the car, mainly to be able to warm up between half block trick-or-treat runs. In Chicago, the homes were so close together, you could hit 20 homes on one block. In the suburbs, the homes are spread out so far, it's a real haul to do 10. Long walking between doorbells. And it seems as if there are fewer kids on the street.

There's an old wives tale that many of the Muslim families don't celebrate Halloween, but we knocked on a lot of doors where many Muslims lived and they were extremely generous and welcoming. It was part of the fun we had talking to some of the courteous homeowners who welcomed the Halloween holiday.

The variety of candy has changed. In the old days, the big prize was one of the large chocolate bars. Mars. Snickers. Buetterfingers. Now, everything is made for convenience and cost. The chocolate bars are still the prize but they are distributed in "mini-bite" sizes.In other words, pretty small.

Nothing makes me think of change more, though, when we're done trick-or-treating and we're home in front of the TV set and it's early evening. Still no later than 7 pm. And we turn on the prime time sitcoms and the characters are talking about "vaginas," sex, "getting laid," and even worse. I won't repeat the jokes. It used to be that most of the forward humor was based on double entendres (adianoetas). Now, they are double-packed with adult humor. And it's not even 8 pm yet. (2 Broke Girls -- Two and a half Men, and more). Two and a Half Men isn't as funny with Ashton Kutcher as it was with Charlie Sheen, but the "double entendres" have been quadrupled in meaning.

Can't we go back a little bit in time to the old days when sex was really secretive and children were more interested in exploring than getting achievement badges for it at a young age?

Fortunately, my son hear's the words on TV as we sort through the candy, and when something nasty is spoken on TV, he blurts out "Inappropriate language dad."

I used to hate the candy corns when I was a kid because they were so cheap compared to the giant candy bars. But now that the candy bars are so small and cheap, the candy corns don't look so bad any more.

Well, it wasn't the same as it was when I was a child running amok painted up as a pirate, wondering about sex and spending my evenings watching Batman, Robin and Roy Rogers. We worried about less. Of course the population on the planet wasn't at 7 billion and the cost of a gallon of gasoline didn't cost more than a burger.

Somehow, it all has changed. A little too dramatically. A little too shockingly. A little too fast.

I wish my son could have experienced the simple pleasures of a world without computer, where a telephone was a luxury and not a necessity of human communications, and a byte was a bite. Horror films were cheesy and not so hi-tech they are so realistic.

Long gone.

-- Ray Hanania
www.TheMediaOasis.com

Not sure which is more disturbing about the Loren-Maltese/Water Reclamation District controversy

2011-10-28T15:38:00.000-07:00

Federal agents discovered a fully loaded automatic weapon, a Glock, in the confiscated former Las Vegas home of convicted felon Betty Loren-Maltese.

I don't know which is worse, that Loren-Maltese had the Glock in her possession at the home where she stayed following her release from prison, or worse, that the gun belonged to the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago, an agency that spends billions to do a poor job of managing flooding caused by heavy rains.

It's one of the typically bizarre stories that surrounds Loren-Maltese, a former dancer turned politician and wife to a former mobster.

It's not surprising that Loren-Maltese, now on parole after she was released from prison for her role in an insurance scam that stole more than $12 million from Cicero taxpayers over a three year period while she was the Town President in the early 1990s. (It was the discovery of that crime that prompted me to break with her as her political consultant and media spokesperson, and then spend my time helping the FBI put her away.)

Loren-Maltese never accepts blame for anything and she always blames everything on everyone else. So who is surprised that the former convicted felon is now saying that she was "set up" by someone, that someone planted the weapon in her home.

It was wrapped up in a pair of her old jeans. Making the story more bizarre -- everything about Loren-Maltese is bizarre, believe me -- is the fact that this occurred sometime back in 2010 while she was cleaning out the home and was being "assisted" by federal agents in Las Vegas.

I didn't know that federal agents in Las Vegas also worked as furniture movers for convicts. That's strange.

Loren-Maltese was convicted in 2002 and released on February 26, 2010, about the same time she went to the home hoping to keep it. The feds took the home and she spent the next many months in a Las Vegas halfway house before moving to a Chicago suburb where she now spends most of her time bashing and lying about her crimes and her "enemies" on her very entertaining Facebook page.

Why did the story come out now?

But it even gets more peculiar. The gun was traced back to the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago, an agency that spends billions to do basically nothing but blame everyone else for their failure to confront area wide flooding. The MWRD built this giant "deep tunnel" to take flood waters away from communities, but the deep tunnel is often filled to near maximum and when it rains, the rain waters have no place to go.

Even more shocking to me and it should be shocking to the public and the taxfpayers who fund the high-flying, high priced life of the board's do-nothing commissioners is that the MWRD carries an aresenal of automatic weapons and Glocks.

WGN TV reported on the story:

"That automatic glock was fully loaded and unregistered-- but the manufacturer traced the sale back to Illinois and the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago. It's an agency with 66 sworn police officers charged with watching and protecting Chicago’s water assets-- and yes, they are assigned weapons-- glocks."

Are you kidding me? What does the MWRD need automatic weapons and Glocks for? To protect their failed flood water strategy from being stolen by terrorists like al-Qaeda?

The idea that one of the 66 "sworn" police who work for the MWRD (let's call them expensive security personnel, not police) may have moved the gun to Las Vegas or to someone who knows Loren-Maltese or who had access to the federally managed home while she was in the hoosegow should be even more disturbing to the public.

But don't expect answers. We can't expect services from the MWRD. Flooding continues to plague all of the suburbs of Chicagoland across the board. We can't expect any truth from Betty Loren-Maltese who is notorious for many things but is a pathological liar. Loren-Maltese will lie to gain any kind of sympathy as she lives her remaining life in a purgatory of shame. And we can't expect a better reported story -- this was one of the most incomplete reportings I have seen in 35 years of journalism.

What we can't expect is exactly what we should expect when a news story like this scratches it's way to our online Google alert in boxes.

-- Ray Hanania
www.TheMediaOasis.com

The MicRib sandwich at McDonald's: A case of heavy media spin and poor American eating habits

2011-10-27T04:57:00.000-07:00

The first thing you should know about the new McDonald's McRib sandwich is that it is not made out of ribs at all. It is pork, meat like a lot of the scraps that are gathered together to create unhealthy "foods" that help the corporations make huge profits. And there is nothing wrong with pork -- lots of religious people who once put pork on their Sin Lists have since changed because pork today comes from pigs that are better cared for and raised in better environments. In fact, the whole ban on pork by religious groups, Christians, Muslims and Jews, was all about public perception than reality.

Which is one reason why corporations like McDonalds, which make huge profits from huge sales numbers, use a lot of pork. Most people just don't care any more.

But while the McRib sandwich is pork, it is not a rib at all. It is made from scraps from the shoulder of a pig. So, in truth, McDonalds should call it the McShoulder Sandwich, but for some reason that doesn't sound as appealing as a rib. There are many rib joints all over -- in the Southwest suburbs they include Portillos, Patio and the Pit Rib House.

People love ribs. No one has a restaurant that specializes in shoulders.

But even though it is called a McRib made from pig shoulder scrapes, it's not even a rib in form. There is no rib bone, which is the true essence of a rib. A rib bone. According to Genesis in the Bible, God took a rib bone from Adam and created Eve with it. Well, that's if you are religious of course, but it never hurt to study the Bible or go to Bible school as a child. Many people believe that women have more ribs then men. I always believed it. They taught that in Sunday School.

It's an urban legend, of course. Humans have 24 ribs, unless there is some other cause for an oddity in the number. And it's an urban legend that the McDonald's Rib sandwich, the McRib, has any ribs in it at all.

The thing that bothers me about the McRib sandwich is that it is made to "look" like a rib section. There are little stripes of what looks like bones. But the sandwich reportedly is just smashed pork scraps from the pig's shoulder, pressed together so tightly they look like a flat piece of grisly meat. Wow. So appetizing already.

I am not sure I want to know how that get that "rib" appearance. But I don how McDonalds made the McRib so popular.

It's a lot like the children's Disney movies and the invention of the VHS tape and later the CD, then DVD and now Blue Ray. In the video industry, which I know something about having been part owner of several Orland Videos later renamed VideoShark Video in the late 1980s and 1990s, Disney would limit the release of selected movies. You always hear about how Disney kept certain movies in the "Vault" away from public access and then suddenly they would release it to the public with the caution, "Better buy it now. It's only out of the vault for a limited time and then it's going back in." You won't be able to buy Snow White, or Bambi once that window evaporates. And the videos sell like hot cakes. Which is a good seque. People eat pork with hot cakes all the time. I think it started when the pioneers were pillaging their way across Native American lands beginning in the 15th Century through the 19th Century. Pigs and cows were corralled together in those wagon trains across the American Indian plains but the pigs did not give milk and they were surly. Cows provided milk and were very accommodating to the end.

Well, it's that time again, America. McDonalds has opened the vault. The "McRib" sandwich is now available in their franchises all across the world today, not just in America.

It debuted in 1981 as a means to off-set the huge demand for Chicken McNuggets. I don't even want to get into what part of a chicken makes a McNugget, but it's not very healthy, though very popular. The McNugget was selling fast so the guy who invented the McNugget for McDonalds came up with the rectangular meat patty and the rectangular bun to help fill the void. It didn't take off right away. And they pulled it from the market, maybe figuring the Chicken McNugget scarcity problem had been solved and now consumers were swimming in chicken scraps, too, and didn't need to confuse them with pig shoulder scraps.

So it has left the market and been brought back out of the McDonald's vault, to much success.

Americans will eat almost anything. Just look at our obese children and our obese parents. We are among the least healthiest people on the planet and yet we are the wealthiest and very well fed. Over fed, some might argue. We throw away so much food, wasting so much in food resources. But isn't that what being American wealthy is all about?

I can just them in the plains as the rickety wheels wobbled over the bumpy plains and rocks, and the kids dragged along as the father's pushed ahead with their rifles drawn shooting and killing animals and Indians as if there were no difference.

"Paw?"

"What Ottis?"

"I'm hungry."

"Don't worry son. We're on our way to Calee-forn-ya and we'll be able to eat everything we want, including the McDonald's McRib sandwich."

"Paw?"

"What Ottis?"

"Is it really a rib?"

"That's the beauty of America, son. Nothing has to be real in the new World. Just what we want it to be."

-- Ray Hanania
www.Hanania.com

New Starz Cable series more exciting than real Chicago Politics

2011-10-20T05:27:00.000-07:00

New Starz Cable series more exciting than real Chicago Politics

By Ray Hanania

KelseyGrammer has become the mayor that chicago never had in the new Starz cable TV series“Boss”. Grammer, who plays a fictional Chicago mayor, is articulate, tough andcorrupt with a style Chicago politicians have long forgotten and an excitementthe city has long lost.

It’sclear from the start that this series is definitely not about our"beloved" former Mayor Richard M. Daley or about his father, the realBoss, Richard J. Daley.

Theyboth shared as much a lifelong difficulty with the English language as they dida confrontational relationship with the Chicago media. The battle with Englishis over in this series.

Fortunatelyfor viewers, I guess, Mayor Tom Kane is no Mayor Daley. The series is set in thetoday, not the past. It's not an historical look back at Chicago politics atall, but rather a look at what it could have been or might become. Thank Godfor that. Chicago City Hall during Daley’s 22 year reign was

farfrom exciting. It was bland, lame and the corruption made headline sbut notmuch excitement.

Chicago'srough and tumble politics came before his father and continued through the falland resurrection of the Chicago Machine under Mayors Michael A. Bilandic, Jane M.Byrne, and Harold Washington, and then began its collapse under the weight ofmediocrity under the kindly Eugene Sawyer before being managed under Daley.

TheStarz series Boss is clearly about a future mayor, maybe even a version of Chicago’snew Mayor Rahm Emanuel. (Emanuel is not just “new,” he is far different fromany mayor we have ever had.)

Thereis enough reality in the show with Mayor Kane and Gov McCall Cullen swearing upa storm of F-words. Gov Cullen reminds me of the former and very tough IllinoisGovernor Jim Thompson. We haven't had a talented governor with a real politicalpersonality in years. But cussing up a storm, that's something that Emanuel cando but that Daley rarely did, being the Catholic alter boy he pretended to be.Mild Gov. Pat Quinn would probably blush watching the show. Though I am surethey all get mad each in their own way.

Thankgoodness for viewers that the only tie to reality in this tv series is thesetting, the rough and tough political playground of real Chicago. In fact, theshow is compelling fiction at its best probably adopting from some of thepolitical scandals that have tried hard but failed to rock Chicago butincorporating much of the city’s below radar racial strife, ethnic politics andits inherent greed.

Havingcovered Chicago City Hall and every mayor from Daley the Boss to Daley theloss, I could see the foundation of Chicago’s politics in the story. And that’sall that viewers really need.

Chicagois all there. But this isn't about a Chicago mayor past, but rather about a Chicagothat can be. One giveaway is that the governor in his limo is using an iPad – Iwas the first to bring a computer to Chicago City Hall in 1979 in the windy Byrneadministration. She created stories so fast you couldn’t keep up without one. I’musing an iPad to write this column. But there is a great scene where thegovernor's aide shows him a video of the mayor meeting with his challenger andthen slams the iPad against the limo hurling it into a field in an act ofviolence most iPad users have considered often.

TheStarz series Boss gives viewers a realistic basic primer on Chicago politicsand government that Chicagoans will recognize and that non-Chicagoans willcertainly enjoy. It’s presented in a way that has been lost under the former MayorDaley. Too often, the reality of Chicago politics was never as good as it waspresented by the newspaper scribes who especially today rely more onimagination and entertainment than hard work or facts.

Forsome reason, this series snubs the Chicago Tribune. When Mayor Kane recruitssomeone to run against Governor Cullen, the mayor tells the suicide candidate hecan easily get support from “The Sentinel and the Sun-Times.” That’s a scriptwriter’s stumble. Chicagoans love and know their media. The Sun-Times, where Iworked, isn't half the newspaper it used to be with a meager circulation ofonly 200,000 and nothing near what the Chicago Tribune is, a powerhouse newsgenerator with a huge circulation and media network.

Viewerswill catch that right away and see it as evidence of the show’s lack ofknowledge about Chicago.

ButI love this series already. As a former City Hall reporter and columnist, thisis exactly the kind of mayor Chicago has always wanted. Tough. Articulate. Clever.Conniving. This boss literally throws an Hispanic alderman out of his office ina torrent of F-words by his ear.

Theseries mayor is also one of the most eloquent speakers ever to hit Chicago politics,something that might take a while for Chicagoland viewers to get accustomed.Reporters wished to have had someone to quote as articulately and as meaningfulas Mayor Kane who is better than President Barack Obama, the Great Talker.”

Thereis also a lot of Tom Cruise Mission Impossible intrigue in the series. Themayor and his wife are at odds, secretly separated living in a home that had tohave been found in a north suburban neighborhood.

There'sa lot of raw sex with the staff, more like a Chicago politics meets the Sopranos.Wait, Chicago politics made the mafia.

MaybeKelsey Grammer is giving Chicagoans a peek at what our new Mayor Rahm Emanuelis. Maybe not. Regardless of the faux pas of political reality, this promisesto be a phenomenal series.

Youcan watch a sneak peek on Starz cable now, but it premieres Friday nights at 9pm.

(RayHanania is an award winning political columnist. He can be reached atwww.TheMediaOasis.com.)

Chicago pillaging its suburban neighbors, again -- what's your solution?

2011-10-17T14:16:00.000-07:00

Chicago pillaging its suburban neighbors, again

By Ray Hanania

History is replete with instances where Chicago has dipped its corrupt government hand into the back pocket of suburbanites to pay for their own mismanagement and sweetheart deals.

In the 1980s, it was the CTA which needed cash. In fact, when has the CTA never been a “Cash Tapped Agency?” To help cover the CTA’s deficit, suburbanites were forced to pay through appropriates by the Illinois General Assembly.

Now, Chicago is demanding that suburbanites pay for the poor water service they receive from the polluted waters of Lake Michigan. Does anyone swim in that lake any more thanks to the pollution that spills in to its waters from city-based polluters?

Mayor Rahm Emanuel even wants to charge suburban drivers who come in to work in the city an extra parking fee.

Most suburbanites fled the corruption, racial strife and the increasingly unsafe neighborhoods. We moved to the suburbs to get better deals on homes, better deals on schools and better police protection. For the most part, suburban services far exceed Chicago services.

But Chicago is the heart of the powerful Democratic Machine that Daley built in the 1950s and was handed down to his son. And what Chicago wants, Chicago gets.

What can suburbanites do about it?

How about we find some leaders who have the courage to fight back.

The fact is there is more crime in Chicago than in all of the six county suburban communities combined. So why are suburbanites being forced to pay for the incarceration of these Chicago hoodlums?

No one keeps these statistics because if they don’t keep them, then you remain ignorant. That’s how dictators control the public. They prevent you from knowing the truth. And the Chicago media is complicit in these crimes of denying citizens the facts.

The media plays up Chicago news stories and ignores stories in the suburbs, only reporting on the most negative incidents, usually exaggerating them.

What can suburbanites do? Well, for one, as voters you to reject any politician who puts Chicago’s interests about the interests of the suburbs.

Why shouldn’t suburbanites put themselves first for a change?

We’ve talked about dividing Cook County in two to counties, Cook County and Liberty County. The fact is the suburbanites of Cook County pretty much pay the bulk of Cook County’s bills, which provide hospital care mainly for people living (and dying) in Chicago.

Why should the suburbs carry the Chicago healthcare and violence load?

That would be the easiest thing to do.

Breaking from Cook County would also mean ending all of the things we do in Chicago. When you go to a restaurant in Chicago, you are screwing the suburbs. When you go to a Cubs Game, a White Sox Games, a Bears game, you are screwing the suburbs.

For those of you who care about the financial imbalance that Mayor Rahm Emanuel is using to bail out the cash-strapped city, you have choices. Go to restaurants in the suburbs. Stay at hotels in the suburbs. Seek out entertainment in the suburbs.

Freedom comes from make the tough choices. And viewing Chicago as an addiction rather than as a necessity is one step in changing this unfair relationship, one in which the suburbs pour out the cash to bail out the always problematic City of Chicago.

If you have more ideas on how to fight back against the city, please share them and I will publish hem in future columns or on my blog at SuburbanChicagoland.com.

###

Cub Scout Camp out: Under a bright moon with the coyotes howling all night

2011-10-17T10:54:00.000-07:00

Boy Scout Troop 318 invited the Cub Scouts of 372 to camp out with them over the weekend. Of course, the invite was made several months ago when the weather was great and I eagerly said yes. Let's do it!

Of course, I would have camped out anyway, but the idea of warm weather was very appealing.

The weather wasn't too bad this past weekend, though. It was sunny Saturday but chilly at night. Not arctic-like, which often is the case when camping out.

So, we went out and bought a new tent. The old "triangle" tent didn't seem to appealing. You know the kind where the front is a triangle, the top is a single bar and it's easy to set-up? I think the tent was from the 1960s and I may have used it once. (I can only imagine what it would have done in the rain.)

We bought the new tent at Dick's and bought a tent they said would accommodate four people. Four? I doubt it. Two for sure, three if we slept on top of each other. It was Field & Stream. The store had a miniature set-up on the shelf and it looked cool. And simple. But simple is never simple. Tents are always complicated.

It only cost $59 -- on sale. That should have been my first tip-off on the tight squeeze. But it was great looking. Round. A front canopy. About 8 feet wide and 6 feet long, with 4 more feet under the outside canopy. Why would anyone want an outside canopy? What were we going to do, sit there like we were on our stoops on Chicago's South Side back in the 1960s waiving to all the neighbors as they walked or drove by?

We were in a forest. We don't need a stoop on our tent. What was I thinking?

Oye ve!

Anyway, we got there Saturday morning around 9:30 and I immediately unpacked the tent. Have to get the tent up first. The wind was howling and gales were sweeping the tent parts like sails in the Mackinac boat races from the Chicago Yacht Club. Finally two other fathers who had come the night before, came by to help. You can't set up a tent with one person, anymore, I learned the hard way.

And they also had a suggestion. We were setting up with the large group of tents on the east side of the field against the tree line. The wind was blowing to the northeast right into those tents that flapped loudly all day and all night. They pointed to a few tents on the west side of the field along the other tree line that look solid as brick.

I'm thinking the whole time of the Three Little Pigs at this point. Because as the tent was gale-ing in the wind, the fiber glass rods were knocking me in the noggin.

So they helped me lift the mess up and we walked across the field to a smaller group of tents and set up there. It did make a huge difference. No wind, I was almost able to do this myself. I spent an hour trying to set it up before we moved. Now, with their help, it only took about 45 minutes.

Lay the tent out. Stake in the corners. Put the fiber glass rods through the tent loops. Figure why I had about 15 remaining pieces with no place to go.

It worked. I was winded. Tired. And thinking about food. We missed breakfast but the Scouts prepared a phenomenal lunch as the Cub Scouts were returning from a hike through the forest with the Boy Scouts.

Once the tent was up, I was able to walk to my SUV and grab the rest of the junk. A bag of food. Two sleeping bags wrapped tight in their holders. Two very heavy sleeping cots. I figured if it were really cold, having the beds off the ground would help. Other people used air mattresses.

I even purchased a gas heater, but then was easily convinced in the tent, it wouldn't be very safe. So I left it in the car.

The adults spent most of the time reminiscing about Scouts when we were kids. I still have my Hiawatha Trail Copper Medal. That was from a 20 mile hike along the lake short near the old train tracks back in the 1960s.

And most of us were baby boomers, so we talked a lot about how in the old days, the Dens and Packs were usually run by one or two scouts and our parents never came along to join the camp outs. At least where I was a Scout, the parents didn't join us. Television news has destroyed our sense of safety and security. We think a killer is around every corner, and a monster in every shadow.

We had a huge bonfire and the Boy Scouts did most of the work. They spent the day showing the Cub Scouts how to do things, qualifying them for more badges. They told stories, performed some skits, all funny. And we had a great meal.

When it was over, we all went to our tents. And by then, I was ready to collapse and go to sleep. Eventually, I went to the car and got the iPad2 and we watched a couple of Movies on Netflix.

It's amazing how the world has changed.

During the night, I woke up to the sound of coyotes howling to each other from different ends of the forest. It was pretty cool. It wasn't that cold at all. The sleeping bags were very warm. And once I realized that I should keep the tent door closed, there were no more bugs.

It even rained in the morning. That's what woke up up at 6 am. The tent held out with no problems.

I wanted to thank the scouts, the friends we made and all the people we met. Lots of moms and even sisters of the scouts joined in the fun so it was a real family affair.

That's the way it should be, I think.

-- Ray Hanania
www.TheMediaOasis.com

A gaggle of gapers block

2011-10-13T13:28:00.001-07:00

A Gapers Block is merely a bunch of bored drivers on the way to work or on the way home who just can't take their eyes off of a gruesome tragic accident off on the side of the road. Gapers slow down as they pass an accident to stare, usually when they are in heavy traffic. But even when they are speeding along at 60 MPH, drivers will slow down to see what's what.

Gapers Blocks are the biggest cause of traffic jams in Chicago.

In the suburbs, we have some Gapers Block traffic jams. But, more often than not, traffic jams are caused by a Gaggle Block.

Yes, a Gaggle Block is familiar to most people who live int he suburbs. It refers to a traffic jam caused when the Canadian Geese walk right in to traffic on a main street, without looking both ways, and slowly meander across the street.

It usually involves a Gaggle of Canadian Geese, too.

In many instances, the Canadian Geese eat their own poop. Yes, hard to believe except maybe in this economy, but that's what Geese do. Maybe that's what slows them down.

This morning a Gaggle of a Gaggle of Geese blocked traffic right near my house. Seriously. There were maybe 100 of them all munching on CGE (Canadian Geese excrement). And their muddied mouths made them look like beatniks as they bounced to some internal and strange bongo drum beat from the 1950s.

I always stop when the Geese go Gaggle Block. The idea of killing one of them is offensive. And there should be a law to put motorists away if they run them over intentionally. Some moron in a farmers pickup truck just couldn't wait and raced through the Geese Gaggle, gunning his engine.

I'm sure he thinks Geese are an annoyance in the suburbs, but frankly the real annoyance are people like him who go out and buy these pick-up truck monstrosities and drive them around burning up gasoline as if there were no tomorrow. Maybe no gasoline tomorrow, thanks to them. They're the ones who need a head check, not the excrement eating geese, even if they are from Canada, which mifght explain that nasty habit by the way.

Still, I can live with the Gaggle Blocks but not the pick-up truck drivers. Ten-four good buddy?

-- Ray Hanania
www.TheMediaOasis.com

"Real Steel" is the real deal -- a great movie

2011-10-09T19:18:00.000-07:00

It was late in 1973 and I had just returned from Basic Training at Lackland Air Force Base and I remember listening to the the radio broadcast the heavy weight battle between Mohammed Ali and Ken Norton which Ali won. A few months later, Ali went on to fight his nemesis Joe Fraizer and winning. And then he went on to defeat George Foreman with his rope-a-dope strategy. It was a wild time and the boxing championships captivated the attention of the world.

It was a phenomenal and emotional time. The fight frenzy was wild. It was exciting. Everyone was in to the championship battles. It was exhilarating.

Watching the movie Real Steel brought back the same excitement. The film, starring Hugh Jackman, Dakota Goyo and Evangeline Lilly, is one of the best movies to come out in a long time. The film has everything from a great story about a fighter in the future who reconnects with his abandoned son after the boy's mother dies, and the passioned story of how they reconnect. Add to that fight scenes between futuristic robots and you have the Mohammed Ali thril-a-in-Manila all over again.

The film starts out with a bang and never slows down. It's PG-13 so my 10 year old son really enjoyed the movie, too. (PG-13 means there are some bad words but what in this world doesn't contain bad words anymore?)

I really recommend that you see this movie if you haven't already. It's that great.

Comet Elenin hangs in northern sky in early evening ...

2011-10-08T05:24:00.001-07:00

While everyone is talking about the Draconid Meteor Shower which is now at it's peak today (during the sun light hours) in the Constellation Draco (located in the northern sky just above the horizon), everyone is missing another major event just to the east of that in the northern sky and slightly to the east.

While my family was watching the 1982 John Carpenter film "The Thing" to prepare us for next week's release of yet a second remake on the big screen, my son noticed a bright object in the northern sky through the window that he said looked like a UFO.

Of course, being the skeptic and not wanting any more media attention than I already get from the biased, screwed up Chicago Sun-Times (which is fast going out of business -- but not fast enough), I'm not going to start screaming "The Sky is Falling. There is a UFO" out there. But it did look strange like it had a veil around the lower part of it.

I remember watching Halley's comet streak across the sky (well, streak would be an exaggeration because while it WAS streaking a millions of MPH, it was so far away that it appeared to just hang in the sky. That was back in 1986. To celebrate that famous comet which comes around once every 75-76 years, I bought a huge telescope (six feet tall) and very powerful (which I still have) and my daughter and I went in the backyard and really got a close up of Halley's comet with its long bright tail. It was spectacular. I remember writing about it for the Chicago Sun-Times when I was a columnist at the newspaper back then -- when it was a real newspaper and not the crap that it is today.

Hey, why not beat the crap out of a lousy newspaper like the Sun-Times in a column blog post about a comet? Who knows. Maybe those crazy people who took their lives when the comet Hale-Bopp passed through the sky in March of 1997. Remember that one, that they dubbed Heaven's Gate after a group of 39 people by that name committed suicide believing they would be scooped up and taken away to meet God. The only place the Sun-Times is going is to Hell. But then, I digress. With some enjoyment, though, I might add.

Anyway, Elenin has gotten no press at all in the mainstream news media. (I'll skip the opportunity digress on that topic which continues my other digressions.) But it is something to see. Check it out tonight. It is at the end of its cycle because apparently it has been getting too close to the sun (sun-times) and the sun's flares have been destroying it little by little.

It's worth a look. Far better to see that than to buy a copy of the Chicago Sun-Times. (Well, Hispanics, Blacks and now Arabs are boycotting the newspaper so maybe it won't need a sun flare to put it out of business.

Here's a link to the Elenin web site: Click here.

And here is a link to the Draconid meteor shower that few will be able to see because of the timing of the shower (day time) and the nearing full moon at night: Click here.

And there's more on Hale-Bopp and the Heaven's Gate cult (just in case some of the Sun-Times maniacs have any cryptic thoughts.) Click here.

-- Ray Hanania
http://RayHanania.wordpress.com

Movie remakes ... Whyyyyy?

2011-10-07T20:30:00.001-07:00

One of my favorite movies is John Carpenter's "The Thing" starring Kurt Russell. The movie came out in 1982 on the big screen. At the time, the graphics were phenomenal. Nowadays, the 1983 graphics would be considered mundane. Today's high tech graphics and animation are really phenomenal. (see how life destroys all that we once held sacred?)

The Thing was a remake of a previous original that came out in the 1950s, I think. It was good but not great. The "Thing" was actually an actor who lumbered around like a bad Frankenstein who came out of the Arctic chill. So the Kurt Russell version was a real treat. The monsters grew out of it victims in the 1982 version, although the ending was lacking. It was like the new movie traded in the originality of the first film for better graphicw. The original film not only had a great plot, but it had a better ending, too.

Well, the 2nd film was about 30 years ago. And about every 25 to 30 years, remakes arrive to entertain the new audience of younger generation filmgoers who probably saw the Russell film but not the first one. That's kind of a statement about out lifestyle and the length of a real lifetime. We who loved the first movie are no longer relevant. Those who love the Russell version are being deactivated culturally, though we struggle to keep up clinging to technology we can purchase with our babyboomer mentality of spend, spend, spend.

But there is a new generation out there today and they want more. More than we babyboomers had. More driven by a feeling of entitlement created by the power of technology. Steve Jobs didn't really teach us to expand our minds. Jobs really taught us to covet that which we could purchase. We don't buy a computer to mprove our lives. We buy computers to fill an insatiable hunger. We have a computer but it's not good enough. So we buy. Aother, better, faster and supposedly doing things we need. But we don't need anything. We want things.

And that's how we see entertainment. We don't need a new version of The Thing. We just want it, like a new computer. It's how we describe today's generation, what i call the "entitlement" generation.

The new version of "The Thing" comes to theaters this coming weekend. Same story. Same fright. Better graphics. And a new public hunger that can never be satisfied.

In fact, I am writing this from my iPad2, struggling to be as good as the laptop that already did everything.

And I will go see the new remake of The Thing because I've been conditioned to be that way, and for no other reason.

If Steve Jobs taught us anything, it might be something like this: "Why be happy with what you have when you could have something that might be better, but will probably just be mediocre? That's why the great inventions I just unveiled last year are no longer relevant and the one I am touting now is what you need to have ... Need! Need! Need!"

See anything similar with today's movies?

- Ray Hanania
Http://rayhanania.wordpress.com

What is that exhaust from those school buses?

2011-10-06T07:41:00.000-07:00

Talk about heavy pollution. Why is it that our school buses are among the worst when it comes to spewing choking pollution into the environment? Is it because we don't care about the health of the environment? We don't care about the health of our students? Or, the bus companies are given a pass because they have some kind of political clout?

Here's a video I shot recently behind a school bus that was pouring out pollutants and choking exhaust. It is "whitish" in color but the fumes were horrible.

People familiar with school bus pollutions say that poor air quality is particularly hard on children, whose lungs are fragile and still developing. Many yellow school buses, because they are run on diesel fuel, are particularly lethal to their hundreds of thousands of riders. The exhaust may include "Particles" that can be filtered out using special filters on the exhaust systems. These particles from diesel exhaust are carcinogenic

The fact is truck and car emissions can lead to heart disease.

Air pollution aggravates allergies, asthma and other respiratory illness.

Major airborne pollutants such as lead, carbon monoxide and sulfur dioxide, contribute to the city’s high incidence of asthma (double the New York State average, in some neighborhoods, and up to six times the national average) and other respiratory ailments.

So why are we not doing something about this? The school system receives probably 60 to 70 percent of the taxes we pay (high school and elementary school, just look at your tax bill if you live in District 230 or District 135. Mine was more than $3,600 out of a $5,000 tax bill.

What are we paying for?

Ryan's 22nd Century Media continues to grow in North suburbs

2011-09-27T05:30:00.001-07:00

The Orland Prairie isn't just a great and reliable newspaper. It's also a part of a successful media empire being built by Jack Ryan, the former Republican Candidate for the US Senate (whose decision to leave the senate race handed the post to then unknown Barack Obama). Ryan always felt he was bullied out of the race by vicious news media attacks against him by the major downtown Chicago news media, and he was right.

But Ryan has gotten his vengeance, building an empire of compelling and informative newspapers in the Southwest Suburbs under the banner of 22nd Century Media.

The newspaper chain includes editions in Orland Park (Orland Prairie), Tinley Park (Tinley Junction), Homer Township (Homer Horizon), Frankfort (Frankfort Station), Mokena (Mokena Messenger), New Lenox (New Lenox Patriot) and Lockport (Lockport Legend). This past week, though, Ryan has expanded his magnificent newspapers into the north suburbs taking on the Chicago Sun-Times' owned Pioneer Press Newspapers with newspapers by adding an edition in Glenview (Genview Lantern) to join his papers in Wilmette (Wilmette Beacon) and Winnetka (Winnetka Current). Ryan is a Wilmette Native.

Ryan's principle of journalism is ideal and not only a response to the ugliness that represents the mainstream media and the wild out-of-control online news media (with their vicious anonymous posters and personal attacks)/ It's based on a solid principle of journalism that has been forgotten: local coverage. Each of his newspapers focuses only on the communities where they are located. He calls it "hyper local."

He has plans to launch three more editions up north in Lake Forest, Northbrook and Highland Park where media choices are few and far between.

The truth is the Sun-Times and the Chicago Tribune have pretty much abandoned local news coverage. The Sun-Times bought up most of the community newspapers in the area, gutting their staffs and plundering their advertising resources.

I saw the need for a suburban newspaper in the southwest suburbs back in 1993 when I launched The Villager Newspapers, consisting of 12 editions. It was very successful and popular. And although we had a strong advertising base, we never had the deep pockets you need to build a media giant. We ended up selling the chain and it was later gobbled up by Liberty Publishing.

Ryan, though, which is strong financial base, has put the newspaper on solid ground. Their online web site has a user-friendly system to navigate and find stories. It doesn't have the viciousness that dominate other local online news web sites,and postings are generally informative. Readers and submit and post their local news and photos online for others to see and read.

Ryan's newspaper giant could become the model for how print newspapers can survive in the Internet generation.

-- Ray Hanania
www.hanania.com

Protests force three Cook County Commissioner holdouts to take furloughs

2011-09-24T16:30:00.001-07:00

In the past year, Cook County;s employees were slapped with 10 furlough days to off-set the growing deficit at County Government caused by the poor leadership of former County Board President Todd Stroger. Instead of cutting the bloated bureaucracy, Stroger slammed taxpayers by adding 1 percent to the already overburdened Sales Tax.

The sales tax was repealed following a stubborn campaign led by Cook County Commissioner Elizabeth "Liz" Gorman. Ironically, Gorman was attacked by two Orland Park village officials -- Trustees Ed Schussler and Patricia Gira -- who claimed she was responsible for the county's terrible financial situation. Without getting in to the equally terrible financial situation of their Village budget, it was hypocritical since Schussler and Gira were partly responsible for the repeal of the sales tax rebate paid to Orland Park homeowners.

Orland Park increased the sales tax to grab funds from consumers, many of whom come to Orland Park from other communities. The rebate was intended to take the burden off of residents. But that came to an abrupt end.

In my book, increasing the Cook County Sales Tax by adding 1 percent is the equivalent of eliminating the Orland Park village sales tax rebate by Schussler and Gira. There is no difference.

But back to Cook County. This week, enraged by the declaration of five Cook County Commissioners that they would refuse to do what they imposed on county workers and they would not take furlough days to help the county saves money, three of them changed their minds. Or, should we say their minds were changed for them. Cook County residents pelted Commissioners Deborah Sims, Joan Patricia Murphy and Robert Steele to accept the furlough.

Imagine the gall of Murphy, who had originally pushed hard to increase the sales tax not 1 percent as Stroger sought but by 2 percent. Murphy claims she can't take the furlough days but will reimburse the county to the tune of $3,269.23, or the equivalent of what their $85,000 a year salary would have lost with the furlough days. She's too busy to take days off. As a PR person now and no longer a journalist, I have to admit that excuse is a brilliant deception, what we call in the business "spin."

Murphy thinks I don't like her, but she's wrong. I do like her. I like the Old Joan Murphy. I like the old Joan Murphy who put the taxpayers' interests above the interests of her political cronies. Murphy is a good person but her policies have been horrible. She should take the lead of Gorman, who has put the interests of taxpayers above her own.

And Schussler and Gira also should follow Gorman's lead instead of bashing her the way they have. It's bad enough the saddled Orland Park taxpayers doubling the village's debt by piling on a loan for a private developer to build a questionable apartment complex. Orland taxpayers are paying the $62 million to fund the Ninety7Fifty in the Park project. Why? Because the village officials have, over the past decade, done whatever they wanted.

Well, the furlough at Cook County won't off-set the mess that Stroger and his allies (Sims and Murphy) have put the county in over the years. And the sales tax rebate money the village has taken away from taxpayers won't cover the loan to the private developers who promised to pay us back. But it is symbolic.

Although, one word about promises. The developers have promised to repay the loan, which is essentially a mortgage in a time when mortgages are falling like dominoes. But promises are sometimes not kept, like when Mayor Dan McLaughlin promised to rebate the sales taxes of residents when he increased the sales tax so many years ago. Afterawhile, the politicians believe that promises can be forgotten and then will be broken.

We'll see. But don't be surprised.

-- Ray Hanania
www.hanania.com

Book Review: The Rogue: Searching for the Real Sarah Palin by Joe McGinniss

2011-09-24T11:21:00.000-07:00

Sarah Palin has a lot of appeal on a lot of different levels. She's sexy looking, in the kind of dark way that when you're slightly high and your vision is blurred and you're sitting at a bar wishing you could dance with someone. Sarah Palin would fit the bill. She's also very topical. She has that wild personality. Edgy. She does the kind of things that attract the interest of a lot of different people from all walks of life. Much like a train crash or maybe more like an accident on the expressway causes cars to slow down and gawk in a "gaper's block."

Lot's of appeal on all kinds of levels. The kind of topic that makes for a great book, although frightening if she ever became president. And that's the only conclusion you can make after reading the new up-close perspective by veteran journalist and author Joe McGinniss in "The Rogue: Searching for the Real Sarah Palin."

The book starts off a little sluggish. Hard to read. So much information. And McGinniss is clearly defensive, having been battered so hard by the Palin Machine. She has a cult following of whack-jobs and nut cases and they piled it on McGinniss as he lucked out and was offered an opportunity to live in a vacant home right next door to Palin and her mercurial husband, Todd, and their wildly Alaskan hill billy life-styled family. But if you stay dedicated to the cause and continue reading, the pace suddenly picks up after about 30 pages and it becomes a breeze as McGinniss describes how a woman who wants to be president went off the deep end with lies and slander to intimidate and strike back at the author.

Much of the book is about how the Palin's reacted to McGinniss moving in next door to their home and the lies that the Palin's promoted against McGinniss, hoping to bully him out. Even claiming that McGinniss was a Peeping Tom who was peering from his deck into the bedroom of the Palin children. (Not true of course, but that didn't stop Glenn Beck, the Cardinal of right wing Whack Job politics from promoting the story as if it were the gospel truth.

What's really fascinating about this book isn't just that it's about Sarah Palin, who is, like I explained a fascinating story like a breaking news tragedy or scandal. It's that the book isn't a lot of political mumbo-jumbo about how Palin stands on a bunch of far right wing issues like gun control, abortion and killing Bullwinkle. (Yes, Sarah Palin admits she loves to murder moose.) This book is about human nature, and about how one person, who many think could become the next president of the United States, reacts to crisis by fabricating issues, exaggerating the circumstances to build up her own popularity and will go to any length to get what she wants.

It's also about the regular substance that makes a book interesting as McGinniss lays out the sordid details of the Palin's pedigree that make for a eye-opening Jerry Springer episode.

I couldn't put the book down. I don't think you will either.

The Rogue: Searching for the Real Sarah Palin
Crown Publishers, New York, 2011
320 pages
www.JoeMcGinniss.com

-- Ray Hanania
www.Hanania.com

Baby boomer reflections and reunions

2011-09-20T08:13:00.001-07:00

Reunions and baby boomer reflections

By Ray Hanania

I attended four high schools, but two of them got most of myclassroom attention and time.

I spent Freshman and most of Sophomore year at Bowen High school.Moved out of the Southeast side during the White Flight era, and land at BoganHigh school where I barely lasted a few months. I was "too dark." Inested at Little Flower, a Catholic high school, until we moved again toBurbank where I graduated from Reavis High school.

It sounds like too many changes but I learned much for eachschool. Of course, that means I also get invited to several high schoolreunions and I am pushing 40 years this week.

I attended the Bowen High school reunion last week and attend theReavis High school reunion Saturday (Sept. 24).

High school was fun but it was a blur at Bowen. Most of my tieswere with students who spend years with me at Hoyne and later Warren Elementaryschools. By the time I got to Reavis, my brain was functioning better, althoughI still couldn't really get good grades.

I was passable. My English teacher helped the most, of course,when I was flunking Composition 101 and she intervened. Through her magic, sheencouraged me to engage in writing, and the next year I became editor of theReavis Blueprint. (I also published, two issues) of a Reavis undergroundnewspaper that got me in some trouble, although then school administrator andBurbank Mayor John Fitzgerald thought it was creative and funny. (He was a greatguy.)

But all the reunions make me think of how times really flies. I'mmy dad's age now. Would he have been as funny as I think I am? It was a simplerlife back them. Today, everything is about computers.

Growing up on the Southwest Side of Chicago, we enjoyed a simplerlife: Granny Glasses, Gant Shirts, lucky loops (on the backs of our shirts thatthe girls snapped off and collected), Penny Loafers, Troll Dolls, slot carracing, hula hoops, TV shows that had just moved in to color like Batman.

Now, all that has been replaced by high technology, and high costbills to pay for it all. Gasoline, once only 35 cents a gallon is now pushing$5. I worked at Burger King for 95 cents an hour and a Whopper only cost theprice of a gallon of gas. Now, I make, well, a lot, and most of it goes toridiculously high expenses.

TV isn't free any more. We pay Comcast Cable a fortune. I have acell phone that drains my income and my time, and it really doesn't work thatwell.

Computers are amazing, and productive and fun, making it easierfor us to communicate. Thanks to Facebook, I can remember who all my friendswere 40 years ago, and who my friends are today. It's a memory supplement!

And I wear glasses as a necessity to read and not just as afashion statement; that I have to hang the glasses on my shirt because my mindis drifting and I might forget where I put them.

Forty years of drinking pop -- Pepsi and Diet Coke -- hasn't givenme cancer, although I really have to work to watch my weight.

And I take more prescription pills than I can even remember. I'mlosing hair on the front and back of my head, and growing it in places I don'teven want to say -- my ears, folks!

And my memory is going.

What are we talking about? I know you? Who?

(Ray Hanania is a media consultant and award winning columnist.Reach him at www.hanania.com.)

Jim Hickey letter to the editor on Casino expansion in Illinois

2011-09-19T11:15:00.001-07:00

Dear Editor:

The Illinois legislature is recommending that the stateadd five new casino licenses. The reasoning is that the sponsors believe thatmore casinos will bring more revenues to the State of Illinois and help tooff-set the financial problems we face.

In reality, though, the gaming legislation will underminethe revenues that the State and many local communities like this one alreadyreceive from local casinos. In the 11th Congressional District where I amrunning for office, we have three casinos. Those casinos not only providerevenue to the state, but they also provide revenue to local communities in thedistrict.

One of the five casinos is being earmarked from Chicago.I believe that is a serious mistake. It will drain revenues from the outlyingsuburbs and undermine existing casinos.

We can't turn to simplistic answers to solve our economicproblems. We need creative ideas. I have many that I believe will helpstrengthen our economy. They include eliminating interest rate charges onstudent loans to make it easier for graduating students to more actively engageour economy: provide free wireless internet to Illinois residents; and, we needto fix gasoline prices, a critical component for economic recovery and seekalternative sources of energy. These will help to create jobs and bottom linewill put more money in the pockets of tax payers which means they will havemoney to spend to get this economy working again

We need to think outside of the old boxes we have builtaround ourselves. We need new and creative ideas.

Thank you

Jim Hickey

Candidate, 11th Congressional District

www.JimHickeyforAmerica.com

HH Gregg, what's the big deal? Seriously?

2011-09-16T18:32:00.000-07:00

I was planning a nice Friday night to relax. Alison took Aaron to the Cub Scouts meeting but I got a call asking me to bring his uniform shirt and belt and neckerchief. She misread the meeting notes saying that you had to be in uniform. So, I had to jump in the car and drop the uniform off at the meeting. On the way back, I noticed the flood lights spinning in the night sky over the Orland Park Place shopping Mall.

Was Barnes & Nobles celebrating the closure across the street of Borders Books? I loved Borders and I already miss it. And then I realized it was the opening weekend of a new appliance and computer store called HH Gregg. Really it's all small letters, kind of the new thing in the 21st Century. "hh gregg."

Every conversation where the name came up, there was this excitement like, wow, it's going to be better than Best Buy or Comp USA when it comes to computers and technology, and appliances.

Really?

I don't think so. But, I love excitement, like everyone. The opening of a new technology store is exciting. So on the way home from my errand, I stopped by the packed parking lot of the Orland Park Place mall and barely found a parking spot. They converted the old sports store that was there. It's one of those stores where you enter this tall foyer and take these escalators to the second floor. (I assume the bottom part is another store you enter from the other side of the mall. Or, as they said in the movie Contact, it sure is a lot of space to waste!

It was exciting because there were so many people there buzzing around. Old men, grandpas like me, dragging behind their grandmas barely able to carry these large boxes of flat screen TVs. People rushing in and out. I wonder what they're all excited about? So I went in.

I was immediately disappointed. Partly because I am spoiled. I have everything. Half the place on the left was washers, dryers, dish washers, ice boxes -- okay, okay, refrigerators (I can't get over calling them ice boxes from when I was a kid) -- and freezers and stoves. It looked like the inside of a Sears Roebuck Store, honestly. On the right were the big screen TVs and the sound systems and the computers. Not a lot of computers but enough to create a crowd.

I walked through the whole place, trying my best to find something. Don't you want to buy something at a new store? I wanted to, but I couldn't find anything to waste my money on. I breezed through the computer section and then past the flat screen tvs and then paused and contemplated buying a sound bar for one of the flat screens I already have. It was only $279, a little bit cheaper than what I've seen at CompUSA (Tiger whatever). I almost bought it but couldn't find any real information to assure me that I could easily connect it to my TV. It said I could connect it to the Blue Ray Player I vowed never to buy (I have three) and to the flat screen TV using an optical cord. But how would I know they would really work? And, I bet I'd have to buy the two optical cords that actually involve better sound quality, I think. I didn't want to buy any additional cords.

I walked past it several times, each time looking. And then walking away. Finally, I just left, really disappointed. There was nothing there that was exciting. So I drove back to Best Buy just to satisfy that urge I had brought out because I had to leave the house. And I wandered around there, too, lamenting the fact that there are no more stores that sell great computer software. Everything is sold online nowadays and that's a real rip-off. Online purchased software is risky. When you download it to a computer, it's great. But if that computer crashes or you upgrade and buy another, forgetaboutit! You ain't getting the software you bought off one computer and on to the other without spending a lot of money on another software program.

Don't believe the lies. I've tried it with lots of downloaded purchased software and it doesn't work trying to move it to another computer. They can move the data files but not the software. That's why I prefer to only buy software that comes in a box on a CD. Period!!!

You can always get around the registration problems if you have the original CD and license and are moving it to a new computer.

Best Buy had nothing. That got me thinking. Maybe hh gregg isn't a bad store after all. Maybe it's not about hh gregg or Best Buy or any of the other disappointing technology stores. The truth is, the real problem is with the industry itself. We've gone from selling software in boxes on store shelves to online downloads that are unreliable and do not have a long use-life. (Don't let anyone BS you. It is almost impossible after 2 years to move a software program to a new computer that you downloaded. The best odds are with a software on a CD that you actually have in hand with the license and registration.)

The industry and the way we sell software has changed. And I am glad. Because it is saving me lots of money. I am a serial technology spender. I spend a lot on computers. Ever since I bought my first Coleco Adam Computer from Wards which lied and said my daughter would get a $500 scholarship if I bought the tape-driven computer machine. They lied. Promises from a retailer are promises made to be broken no matter who they are.

I bought the IBM PC Jr and then an IBM XT back in the day when a 5 MB hard drive was considered huge and we used those large 5 1/4 inch floppy discs. Now I use the iPad and that's a "whole-nother" problem, especially when you move to a new computer and try to sync the iPad through iTunes. I don't work!

But it is the industry that is disappointing. Lot's of neat new technologies in the works and available. But I have it all. And there is such a thing as technology overload, or technology hoarding, what physicians call "disposophobia," or the selfish act of greedily collecting stuff. That's me, Mr. Disposophobia, the selfish collection of possessions just to possess something.

And that's how hh gregg disappointed this disposophobic shopper. They had nothing I wanted to hoard.

-- Ray Hanania

If the terrorists really wanted to destroy America -- and had brains

2011-09-14T09:31:00.000-07:00

If the terrorists really wanted to destroy America -- and if (a big if) they had brains -- instead of targeting innocent people and iconic edifices, they would instead target the programming on American TV.

Yes, television. Americans live by several internal clocks, one that gets them up early each morning, one that pushes them to over eat high cholesterol fatty and unhealthy foods, and, most importantly, one that works on the bigger seasonal picture called the Fall TV programming.

Yes, Americans look forward to the Fall TV season. What else do we have to do with our lives in this country of excessive freedoms that are spoken about but not always available, and, well, excesses in general. We have too much of everything, including most recently, growing poverty. But we deal with the poverty the way we deal with all ailments and social problems, with even more apathy. We just look away. (Americans are taught at an early age, don't look in the eyes of the poor and you won't feel guilty about their suffering, or that you are spending hundreds of dollars are junk food while the poor have nothing.)

Our Fall TV season lineup begins in September, which happens to be a favorite month for terroristic actions. The terrorists have no brains and work by redundancy fueled by hatred. September is the month of the world's greatest terrorist attack against America and that's how it is going to be for a long time, a new religious holiday for the extremists that they can use to focus their energies. It's perfect.

The Fall TV lineup, even if it is cluttered with episodes that will either go nowhere and disappear or will waste all of our brain cells on mindless eye candy entertainment, is the target they should focus on.

I know what it's like to get hit in the heart of the American spirit. I've been hammered by the worst domestic terrorist I know, ComEd, the electric company. ComEd blackouts strike when they are least expected and most not wanted. Usually when I am at home, finally comfortably settled in my couch and ready to watch TV. And the electricity goes out. For hours.

I sit there for a while hoping it is just a bump, but it doesn't come back on right away. ComEd terrorist attacks are happening more and more frequently. (Hey, don't yell at me for minimizing the importance of the proper application of the word "terrorism" or "terrorist." We have already diluted it's meaning into meaninglessness. Is that a word? What's the difference when words have no meaning any more anyway?)

I'm already getting angry thinking about the last time the electricity failed and I couldn't watch TV. This is America, buddy. Land of the Free. Home of the Brave. And prime time schedule of mindless TV entertainment. The Book Tube -- and there is nothing sexual about that in a substantive way. Just theoretically speaking, of course.

Yes, disrupt the TV watching habits of Americans and you will have struck at the heart of all that is the true America. We love our TV. We love our TV programs. We especially love sitcoms, or situation comedies, as we are constantly told over and over and over again. Mindlessnesly. (Is that a word?) And you take that expectation away from us or disrupt the ability to watch TV and you have struck a blow to the heart of our American lives.

Now, nevermind that this season's lineup of new programming looks like it really sucks. Sucking is a relative thing. You can have 30 shows that all suck and there is still a ranking of which suck more and which suck less. The fact that none of them are good is not important. It's all about which pathetically wasteful time consuming TV show is better than the other pathetically wasteful time consuming TV show. We'll watch the "best" of whatever."

Maybe that should be our new slogan. "The Best of Whatever." That covers everything.

I've seen a billion commercials for "Whitney," the TV sitcom about a young stupid no-brain woman who is brutal to her boyfriend-husband or whatever, and supposedly reflects the real lifestyles of modernday Americans. She doesn't. But that doesn't matter. She's a flake and flakes are funny. And if you can get an American to smile, you have locked in their wallet.

I really LOVED Charley Sheehan in "Two and a Half Men." The show was okay but it was the perfect environment for Sheehan's endless comedic talents. The guy is just funny even when he doesn't try to be funny. But he got greedy and the bosses at CBS didn't like that one bit so they slammed him out and replaced him with another anyone -- Ashton Kutcher. Ashton is a nice guy. A good actor. He's married to Demi Moore and i think he's even friends with Moore's ex-husband, Hollywood's Bruce Willis. (Moore is phenomenal, of course. She was born in Roswell, New Mexico which means there is a good chance her parents were aliens or aliens implanted their seed somewhere. Whatever.)

I'll watch it -- and be very angry if the terrorists somehow disrupt that premier because even if it stinks, the Ashton Kutcher Two and a Half Men series will be fun to watch just to compare it to the Sheehan version of the same show. Why wouldn't I watch it? The "Best of Whatever" principle applies here, too.

There's more. There is the TV series about the woman cop who gets beat up and has blackeyes on her face. It's her job. I don't know. Chelsea Lately, who is always good for the interruptus of the coitus of the mind, is moving to a better time slot. I think. Although I haven't watched her in a long time. She's a lot like subscribing to SiriusXM Radio just to listen to Howard Stern and the Spice Channel. Not having Stern on your car because you don't want to pay the extra $10 a month makes you think that there is something more to be had since SiriusXM with the regular channels totally sucks eggs. Seriously. It's just a rebroadcast of everything youa re already paying for on Comcast Cable TV now. CNN. HLB. Blah, Blah Blah> And The Spice Channel, which is supposed to be all about total sex talk, spends more time as an advertisement for the Mustang Ranch and porno Stars who are better seen performing and not talking.

Which gets me back to the topic. We have nothing to look forward to except for the "Best of Whatever." And you take that away from us and we will go berserk, and seriously mourn and be unhappy.

But, of course, the terrorists are too stupid to figure that out. First of all, you can't be smart to be a terrorist and especially a suicide bomber. They're idiots. The sooner they leave the better, with the least damage to our society. Bye bye morons. Terrorists are like most criminals who do stupid things not because they think them out but because they let their anger drive their actions. It's never done right and they get caught because no intelligent person would do what they would do. Most terrorists can't speak English well enough to understand the sophisticated vernacular of the typical TV sitcom performer, so they have no idea what is or isn't important on TV. It's all vanilla to them and if it isn't an extract, they don't like vanilla at all.

Anyway, enjoy the new TV season. As "best as you can. Whatever!"

-- Ray Hanania

Why do I go to a White Sox game? Hell-u-lar Field

2011-09-14T05:09:00.000-07:00

Why did I go to a White Sox game last night? It was so disappointing on so many levels. But my son won the seats as a reward for his academic efforts so it was to share his moment that I had to suffer with the White Sox.

It isn't the White Sox players themselves that disappoint me. Any White Sox player can become a Cubs player, some day. The Cubs lose but the Cubs fans go to the ballpark to enjoy the game, win or lose. White Sox fans actually think they are going to win the World Series again. Delusional!

I hate the stadium. It is so commercial and un-intuitive. Who designed that monstrosity of a public hassle? And to name it after a cell phone company only adds insult to injury. The cell phone companies are the biggest rip-offs in our economy. They charge us an arm and a leg for service but they fail to provide adequate service. Not one of them. All of the services stink and they constantly drop calls. The cell phone industry doesn't work properly. it is plagued with bugs and failure. Co "Cellullar Field." Pathetic!

The parking around the stadium should be the easiest to get to but the fact is that it is easier to park at Wrigley Field -- built when? A few years after the turn of the 19th Century? -- than it is to park at Comiskey Park. There I said it. F-You Cellular Field! The parking there is horrendous. Some moron who flunked out of the Chicago Public schools -- and that is so hard to do, actually -- must have designed the parking lot patterns. And the idiots they hire to manage "security" around the park only make it worse. You turn on 39th Street to par and they immediately wave you away, even though the signs tell you to keep going to park with a ticket or for cash, they make you go around in circles on purpose. The signs are lies at White Sox park. The people hired to direct traffic are not directing traffic at all. They are mocking White Sox commuters.

A smart rat couldn't figure its way around the parking maze at White Sox Park! It's a hassle and an intentional mess. I think it might be a strategy to make life difficult for Sox fans so that they have lowered expectations before they get int he park and consume cases of beer and slosh around the F word like they were at the South Side Irish Parade.

The food at Sox Park is okay. It's not great. It is just okay and that's amazing for a politically connected place to give the food to people who are there only to make a fast buck rather than service the hunger pangs of the fans. What else is new?

The prices of food is not out of line with the prices at Wrigley Field or any other place. But the food at Wrigley is so much better.

Then there are the people. I think it is an anecdotal fact that South Siders are fatter than north siders, and maybe that's why the smartest south siders are also Cub fans and not White Sox fans. A lot of South Siders are heffers. (Who came up with Cows on Parade? A northsider mocking south siders, of course.)

And the souvenir shops had pure junk. At least at Wrigley Field I can buy my son an autographed baseball. Not at White Sox Abomination. Pure worthless junk.

But the drunks who stumble in to the White Sox games and then stumble out -- and are too afraid to walk through the local neighborhood even though many of the public housing units have been demolished to make them feel better -- don't care about the quality of the junk there because many of them are dressed like slobs.

I actually sat there and watched a White Sox prodigy who was maybe 12 years old sit at his chair and spit constantly on the cement steps next to his aisle seat. His friend did the same. Spitting through the whole game. Fortunately a Cubs fan told them to stop. Who else would step up to the plate to teach them public manners?

Of course, the White Sox lost the game to the Detroit Tigers. But that isn't exclusive to the White Sox. The Cubs lose often. But when I go to a Cubs game, I go in knowing we have no chance in hell of winning anything. And it doesn't bother me because by the time I get to my seat -- which is just as expensive as the seats at the White Sox Rat Maze -- I am happy and hassle free and I am enjoying the food at the park. I'm content at Wrigley Field before the game starts, unlike the nightmare experienced at Hell-u-lar Field.

-- Ray Hanania

Another major gunfight at the OK Corral -- the Orland Park Mall - Yikes!

2011-09-10T07:35:00.001-07:00

How many shootings have there been at the Orland Park Mall? That's what I asked my wife this morning as she sat at her laptop and read the stories about the manhunt for a shooter who attacked a shopper at the Orland Mall, shooting the woman in the arm with a gun outside of Penny's around 9 pm Friday night.

That will be a big draw for Orland Park. Thankfully we have the best Police Department in the nation to respond to it.

As my wife read through the stories, I kept asking her to tell me what was happening. That made me think of how our society has changed in the computer era.

"Didn't you hear the helicopters flying over the mall last night keeping us awake?" she asked.

I was fast asleep. "No. What helicopters?"

Cook County sent a helicopter to help track down the gunman, who is seems, was a woman attacker. That's even worse, I think. Male chauvinism maybe?

"What happened?" I asked.

After I pestered her with a dozen questions, my wife looked at me and said open your iPad and read the stories yourself.

No. I want someone to tell me the story. "I wonder if we can invent a little box that you put in the frontroom and turn on and some guy comes on the screen and tells you everything that happens instead of having to dig for the news ourselves?

Oh yea. That's called television news, something that is fast disappearing from our daily agendas. We used to watch the TV to get all the news that the newspapers couldn't get straight. The reports and videos were informative and fast.

Now, we have to scan the Internet news sites for news ourselves. I didn't get it any sooner on the Internet and only listened as I prodded my wife to tell me what was happening Saturday morning as I drank my black decaf coffee.

Maybe that's the problem. No caffeine to fuel the energy I thought.

Yea, I'm watching some dufus trying to tell me how to make millions using the Internet. "Just let the money come to you. I have this automated system and you don't have to do anything. You build the web site, use my three step system and blah, blah, balh."

It was "Paid Programming" on Comcast Cable, which has seriously deteriorated in the past few years. Comcast charges you for everything on its channel lineup, even old movies that are junk have to be bought. It's crazy. How did I let myself fall in to this Comcast Crap anyway? I need to cancel Comcast and try satellite, I think. Although Netflix has partially replaced my movie viewing habits. Netflix downloads are good quality but the selection of movies sucks. There really isn't much. So far no one has invented a great system for TV. We've only gone backwards into the Stone Age.

I want some guy, or girl, on TV telling me the Who, What, When, Where, How and Why of the news story. The updates and the conclusion. I don't mind reading about it later, if it interest me. And anytime there is a gunfight at the Orland Park Mall, it interests me. The thought of the suspect scurrying away and around the nearby homes at night is frightening.

Maybe Mayor McLaughlin can take some of that $62 million we're giving to his developer pals and boost up security around here. Yea, a gunfight at the Orland Park Mall isn't going to attract a lot of those wealthy rich people to move into the luxurious Orland Park apartments a stone's throw from the Mall. Although maybe that might get the thieves to stop focusing on robbing people at the Mall and focus on breaking in to the apartments of the very rich who are not so bright to invest their wealth in an apartment overlooking a Metra Train station.

Okay. There's too much to process here.

Back to the Boob Tube!

--- Ray Hanania

Breaking News Orland Park: Letter from Trustee Brad O'Halloran on Ninety7Fifty "Mr. Mayor, I respectfully must disagree"

2011-09-09T12:57:00.000-07:00

Letter from Trustee Brad O'Halloran on Ninety7fifty

Mr. Mayor, I respectfully must disagree.

I have been a Trustee in the Village of Orland Park for the past 18 years. While there have been many challenging issues during this time, none has had the potential economic impact on the Village’s finances to the degree the proposed “9750 On The Park” project will have. As such, it is the single biggest financial vote in 20 years. When I first became a trustee the Village’s overall debt was around $18 million, today it is $79 million. The proposed 9750 project would almost double that debt to $144 million. To put things in perspective, the 9750 project’s debt of $65 million is greater than the debt of the new police station, the Sportsplex, the new library, the new train station, the public works facility and the old police station renovation----COMBINED. Now that’s a big deal.

I received the final details of this deal in my weekly Village package on August 13th in the form of a 5 inch ring binder stuffed full of details. I’ve been trying to absorb them ever since. While it’s certainly true that I knew this project was in the works for quite some time, this was the first time I saw the final business terms and was given the third party report that analyzed the risk factors involved. In addition I always assumed there would be plenty of time for debate with public hearings and the traditional Village Committee process, prior to any final vote. Well, as we all now know the final vote is to occur at our next meeting on September 19th, after the public hearing this past Tuesday. So in addition to the statements I listened to on Monday, I’ve been soliciting my own input from the same neighbors, friends, former coaches and local business folk I’ve relied on for years and whose opinions I respect. And we’ve hit on some common themes.

1.) This is no time for anyone to be doubling their amount of debt. If I wouldn’t do it as an individual or business, why would the Village ever consider it? If there is one common thread to the current problems in our state and country it is one thing, too much debt.

2.) A partnership is just that. 50/50 or 60/40 or even 70/30, but 96/4, I don’t think so.

3.) The Village has no business being in the Apartment business. If this is such a good idea then let the private sector have at it, but don’t risk my money by using public funds.

Of course there was a lot more banter, but those three were common to any discussion.

So how did we get here today? Well, this project is perceived to be the linchpin of the Village’s downtown redevelopment. A vision the Mayor and this board have worked on for many years. A vision I must say I share and have supported to date. A vision that has been many, many years in the making. Unfortunately, I think with respect to the 9750 project maybe there’s been a little too much tunnel vision. Too much focus on the end result and the beautiful renderings and rosy projections and not enough focus on the economic uncertainty in both our state and country and the fact that these funds are the funds of our citizens. The same citizens that I have been so proud to represent for so many years. The same citizens that have entrusted me to represent them to the best of my ability.

The one thing I’ve always admired about the Village board and the Mayor is that we can disagree without being disagreeable. So in the end I guess I must concur with the folks I spoke with and the common sense input they offered and respectfully disagree with you Mr. Mayor and say no to the proposed financing of “9750 0n The Park “.

Sincerely,

Brad S. O’Halloran

Village Trustee

Finance Chairman

Village of Orland Park

Senator Mark Kirk’s Efforts to Weaken New Consumer Agency Bad for Illinois Consumers

2011-09-08T07:30:00.000-07:00

ForImmediate Release: Press Inquires:

September8^th,2011 Brian Imus, Illinois PIRG, 312-399-3834

brian@illinoispirg.org

Dory Rand, Woodstock Institute,312-368-0310

drand@woodstockinst.org

KarenHarris, Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law, 312-263-3830

karenharris@povertylaw.org

Senator MarkKirk’s Efforts to Weaken New Consumer Agency Bad for Illinois Consumers

Thelandmark ConsumerFinancial Protection Bureau (CFPB) recently took over as the nation’schief regulator of financial institution compliance with consumer laws –mortgages, credit cards and other bank loans, including overdraft fees. Despitestrong public support for the new bureau, Illinois Senator Mark Kirk is one ofjust a few Senators who have taken several positions that would undermine andweaken the new consumer protection agency.

IllinoisSenator Mark Kirk is one of 44 U.S. Senators to sign a letter to PresidentObama opposing any nominee to head the bureau until the bureau’s power is firstweakened. He also co-sponsored legislation that would weaken the new bureau and legislationthat would completelyrepeal the Dodd-Frank Act, eliminating the new consumer protection bureau. Heis one of only 6 Senators who have taken the extreme position of signing theletter and sponsoring both rollback bills.

“Allthree positions taken by Senator Kirk benefit Wall Street banks and thebusiness-as-usual approach to regulating financial institutions that caused theeconomic mess we face today,” said Brian Imus, Director of Illinois PIRG.

ThePresident nominated former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray, the currentenforcement chief of the Bureau, as the CFPB’s first director. He’s alreadyreceived strong support from Ohio papers andpraise from the current Republican Attorney General of Ohio, Mike DeWine, who haddefeated him. The Bureau will not haveits full authorityto protect consumers in the financial marketplace until a director is confirmedby the U.S. Senate.

“Despitesigning a letter with other Senators opposing any nominee until the bureau isweakened, I hope Senator Kirk will evaluate Attorney General Cordray based onhis qualifications,” said Dory Rand, president of Woodstock Institute.“Opposing any director for the new bureau, regardless of qualifications, isn’tin the interest of Illinois consumers.”

Arecent poll shows that anoverwhelming majority of likely voters both support a new consumer agency (74%)and want Wall Street held “accountable” (77%).

“It’scritical that the Bureau has the ability to effectively enforce our financialprotection laws. That’s why it’s important for Illinoisans to know whereSenator Kirk stands,” said Karen Harris with the Sargent Shriver NationalCenter on Poverty Law. “We encourage Illinoisans to let Senator Kirk know thatthey want him to prevent the banking lobby from weakening the ConsumerFinancial Protection Bureau.”

# # #

Formore information on how consumers will benefit from the CFPB, please read Ten Reasons WeNeed the CFPB.For information on the importance of confirming Richard Cordray, pleasedownload this fact sheet.

2011-09-08T05:24:00.001-07:00

test settings

I guess we know what the village of Orland Park's problem is ...

2011-09-07T05:03:00.001-07:00

Orland Park Says it needs to get it's message out:the problem is their message is already out and thepublic doesn't like it.

The Village of Orland Park has two full-time communications people to help promote their events and agenda. Apparently, they're not very good, their political clout and pedigree not withstanding.

Don't get me wrong. I think communications consultants and employees are important to every government, After all, having spent 30 years as an award winning journalist with front line professional journalism experience under my belt, I am a communications consultant today. My job is to know not only how to present a message for a client, but also to whom. Who is the audience? And, what message is most effective. Comes from years of experience, folks.

But I have also learned that when a government has two full-time communications employees who were paid last year $142,768 -- and no doubt far more this year to issue press releases touting Mayor Dan McLaughlin and his agenda -- and the mayor declares that clearly the problem with the village is that it is not getting their communications message out very well so they have to hired a third communications consultant. Houston. We have a problem.

Now, communications isn't rocket science. So they hired a friend of mine, Lloyd Betourney -- I say that knowing that chances are in the small minds of some of the village officials, being my friend may not be an asset. Betourney heads up The Public Response Group which mostly does political campaigns but was brought on specifically to manage "reputation management" for Mayor McLaughlin and the Village.

I'm not sure which one has the reputation management problem at this point any more. (I love the village and I like McLaughlin -- he's a decent guy but we find ourselves on the wrong side of issues many times.)

The Public Response Group will only be paid about $49,500 for their 18 month contract to help the village get its reputation in order. So that brought the amount taxpayers are spending to manage communications (and the very related aspect of reputation management) to -- let's see, I went to the public schools where class length was far longer than what we have today in Chicago and even in the suburbs -- $192.276. Again, this Chicago Public Schools alumni can figure out that represents last year's total and my guess is the salaries this year for the "two" village relatives on the payroll is probably higher. So, for the sake of sensationalism, let's just say the village is already, now, paying about $200,000 for communications.

But apparently in the month since Betourney's Public Response Group was brought on, the village of Orland Park has decided to bring on yet another communications firm. Yes, another PR group to handle the issues probably being ruffled by the village's misguided plan to build luxury condominiums next to the Metra train station. (Sure. Wealthy people are going to move next to a Metra Train so they can get to work? I don't think so.)

The new fourth PR Firm being brought is in going to deal with surveys of the public to determine, as one village official explained, if things like snow removal and street cleaning were still relevant to residents.

I'm a little surprised that someone would ask that question. Of course, they were probably told what to say when asked by the three Communications employees and consultants who I am sure got together to figure out why that amount of money wasn't going to their pockets.

And by the way, how much with the village spend to hire the fourth communications consultant? We don't know. Maybe the village needs to hire another communications consultant to help them figure that out. They'll take bids and they will do it publicly.

Mayor McLaughlin and the "IT Team" headed by Trustee Jim "Sunshine" Dodge -- that's his favorite saying -- are probably just doing their best to try and figure out why their originally intended message hasn't gotten out. And maybe they want to know why the message of the luxury apartment complex they want to build using taxpayer money seems to be mired in public rejection. And oh, the public so does not want that Main Street Ninety7Fifty complex with the nifty little name.

They just don't understand. The problem is that their message HAS already gotten out and the problem is that the taxpayers in Orland Park understand it very well and they don't want it.

Wow. And no one had to pay me for that communications advice. I can just hear the commotion at the Village of Orland Park's new Communications Consultant Armory Offices and the $280,000 in salaried and consulting employees screaming, "Let's put out 5 press releases and see if we can spin this differently folks!"

Why not? It doesn't bother them how much the village has to spend on consulting, on luxury apartments and on PR spin. It's taxpayer money anyway.

-- Ray Hanania

Suburban Schools do more than Chicago Schools for their children

2011-09-06T06:22:00.000-07:00

I was fascinated by the debate in Chicago over the length of time schools kids spend time in schools. There is no question that the big concern is teachers is their excessive salaries and their pensions, not the children. And that's sad. The fact is Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who is not right about much, is right about the schools. Children need to stay in the elementary school classrooms longer than the 5 hours or so they are there now. Emanuel wants to increase their time in school and that's a great idea.

The Chicago news media (Chicago Tribune and Sun-Times) are preoccupied with the subject. But the truth is they don't care about school children at all either. They care about selling newspapers. Even the TV media which slurps up sloppy seconds on news, follows the lead of the Tribune and the Sun-Times reporting only on Chicago's school dilemmas.

Well let me give some information that no one seems to care about.

Suburban schools started one week before Chicago's schools and will probably remain in class days longer than Chicago's schools.

Suburban children are in class more than 6 hours every day and there is nothing wrong with that at all. In fact, Emanuel is right. School children should be in class at least 6 hours but the Chicago Teacher's Union doesn't agree. The issue for them is salaries and wages and costs. It's not about the children. Teachers complain about their salaries but they get great salaries and great benefits. But they always want more.

Chicago's Mayor Emanuel should win this fight and force the kids to stay in school longer.

It may be different from some kids in High school. There, the children in junior and senior year may have to work to help their families and staying in school longer might be a costly burden for them. But that's easily resolved by giving those children permits to leave school early.

The point is, children should be in school all day and at least 6 hours or more. That's where they learn. And if teachers don't want to be teachers, maybe they should join the unemployment line and see what it's like being without a job.

They have great healthcare benefits that are far superior than anything their students get. So quit whining, teachers and start focusing on what's good for the students. Your union has done far more for you than you deserve, getting more benefits than the students. While your salaries have increased, school programs have been cut.

I wonder if they teach about all this in economic classes?

-- Ray Hanania

Orland Park: Main Street or Main Problem

2011-08-30T06:58:00.001-07:00

I admit, I haven't spent a lot of time analyzing Mayor Dan McLaughlin's Main Street plan. And while I have confidence int he abilities of some of his advisers -- the Village Manager Paul Grimes for one has done a great job over the years and is an asset to the village -- I just can't fall in love with this latest development plan.

It's called Main Street. Or "Ninety7Fifty on the Park." It's supposed to be the Park Place of Orland Park. It's supposed to attract the really rich, and I assume their money to Orland Park. It's supposed to be financed by the Village. Officials say it doesn't involve tax dollars but that's not really true. Every dollar that government spends is basically a tax dollar that comes out of our pockets. And that is the first red flag. Why is the village and McLaughlin using village funds to build an upscale apartment complex for the rich? Can't they afford to do it themselves?

I understand the argument. The developers want help to get it done. Every developer wants help to get their projects done but we don't help them all. And we certainly haven't helped developers to the extent that the village and Mayor McLaughlin want to help "Ninety7Five on the Park." That's a lot of money we're going to be floating for the developers. They say it will work. Maybe. And maybe not.

And who gets stuck with it? The taxpayers.

But I have a concept problem with the whole deal, besides legitimate concerns about the financing plan Mayor McLaughlin has developed for the developers.

To put it simply, the Village of Orland Park is going to put up $62 million to help build this project, expensive luxury apartments that will be bought by the wealthy -- I assume these are people who don't already live in Orland Park and have pots of gold stashed away in their 6,000 square foot homes that haven't fallen to the mortgage banker robber barons for foreclosure. 295 units of luxury apartments -- why not call them expensive condos? That are supposed to "anchor" the new Orland Park downtown. Downtown. My family fled Chicago specifically to get away from "downtown." Maybe Mayor McLaughlin has been working downtown too much to see the pitfalls of a downtown.

Anyway, seriously. Some rich dude with loads of cash is going to move to Orland Park to live in a luxury condominium which is supposed to be the anchor of a yet unbuilt "downtown?"

I don't think so.

Worse. They are going to drop how many hundreds of thousands in today's crappy real estate market where condos are the last to sell and the first to go in to foreclosure?

I don't think so.

And even worse. The idea that some rich dude is going to buy a luxury condominium apartment next to a train station -- the METRA train station?

I don't think so.

Didn't Tinley Park try to build a bunch of expensive condos near their train station and didn't that fall through specifically because rich people don't want to live near train stations?

We just finished an ugly debate a few years ago about giving seniors free CTA transportation because Gov. Quinn and others said that rich seniors shouldn't get free public transportation. They can pay for it. So some rich guy will millions is going to take the train from Orland Park's "downtown" where he moved to, in order to go to Chicago's "downtown" which everyone is trying to escape from?

I don't think so.

Mayor McLaughlin has a few good advisers. And he has a few goofs, like his buddy on the planning commission who has run-of-the-mouth disease on the Orland Park Patch hate board. Or the District 230 idiot who thinks she can be five things at one time, who also publishes here stupid comments on the Orland Patch hate board. (I love the Patch but I think its chat board is too filled with viciousness and hatred.)

I think there is a tinge of pre-election jitters involved here. McLaughlin knows that he is in for an election fight this next go around. The last few elections have been a breeze. The candidates were good people who couldn't get their acts together. But this next election, I think, the mayor is going to have a serious challenge. And I think he wants this to work so bad to help him get re-elected.

I could be wrong. But, I don't think so.

-- Ray Hanania

More on Flex Seal -- even the little they give you doesn't work

2011-08-03T05:58:00.000-07:00

Many of my readers are familiar with my Flex Seal experience. This is one of the worst products I have ever purchased. It just doesn't work.

I bought two cans at an exorbitant price ($19.95 each) -- one can was actually free, but you had to pay the $19 processing and handling fee. Sure!

Anyway, I figured, the concept sounded good. A spray that can help seal water leaks. I had one on a gutter. I used one can, it emptied out in seconds, that's how little product was in the 10 ounce can. Really? $19? Pathetic.

Still, I hoped that the rubber coating that it claimed to provide would help seal the leak. Both sides of the gutter, inside and out. And guess what? This week it rained. And the Flex Seal that prevents leaks, leaked. Yes, it leaked. Not only was it costly and way over-priced. It doesn't work.

I have the second precious can of Flex Seal. I could use that to cover about 12 inches of area. But what would be the point?

Here's my blog posts on Flex Seal. Click here to read the last entry.

Don't buy it. (I spend my money so you can save yours.)

-- Ray Hanania

Is the quality of food and products dropping before our eyes?

2011-07-31T08:14:00.000-07:00

Prices are going up. That's a fact. That's why you can't rely on Social Security to take care of yourself in your senior years and why it always makes me wonder why Seniors are so dead set against the health care improvements President Barack Obama is trying to bring to America.

But the real problem is the quality of food. It used to be that you would go to Jewel and Dominicks to insure that you bought the freshest and best quality food. You went to Cub Foods and Aldi to save money, knowing that the food had a shorter shelf life and that sometimes the food had to be eaten right away. No more luxury of time for food there.

That was the perception and I think the reality. But who really knows? No one actively monitors food freshness at grocery stores.

But I have noticed that food I am buying at the so-called "good stores" is not that great. It has a shorter life and seems to spoil faster. You have to watch the "Sell by" dates more vigilantly or you might end up buying a gallon of milk that is stamped to be sold by the next day. It happens more often than not.

The eggs are not as fresh as they used to be. Meats are not lasting as long.

What's happening?

Like everything, food retailers are not wasting potential sales in today's poor economic markets. They are selling food that they might have tossed a few years ago, to reduce losses and increase profits. Every dollar thrown out in bad food is actually valued at $2 and maybe $3 to the store. You throw out $1 and you also lose the $1 sale. But it also costs to sort through the food and move out bad product or product with a short shelf life.

So it's easier now to keep the garbage on the counter and in the deli with the new food and sell the older food, rather than worrying about consumer satisfaction. I mean, what are consumers going to do about it anyway? Write blogs?

No. Consumers are sheep. They won't do anything. They may complain but that's it. They will still buy the food. And, because most are struggling economically -- well, those making less than $250,000 a year for sure -- they are too busy worrying about how to pay the bills each cycle than to spend time assessing the quality of their food.

It's a hidden cost of today's bad economy. The economy isn't about politics. It is also about quality of products. When the economy is bad, retailers are less likely to toss out spoilage. They will try to keep it longer for that sale because selling what they may have thrown out before could mean the difference in today's economy between success and bankruptcy, a word we are all hearing and reading about more and more.

-- Ray Hanania